


No Big Deal

by madamebomb



Series: Carnal Series [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, and some dirty language, dick so bomb it makes your knees go on vacation, just some wild wallbanging here folks, lots of dirty language, really this is just erotica, straight up nasty sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-10 13:46:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 39,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15292833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madamebomb/pseuds/madamebomb
Summary: Azula and Sokka's constant fighting finally comes to a head, but what happens when they both realize they've caught feelings? A lot of misunderstanding, a fight to the death, and mind-blowing sex, that's what.





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

> The majority of Part I was written for a "5 Minute Fic" challenge on my Tumblr, which ended up having 7 parts. I've rewritten the beginning and done some editing to make it one long story here. I'll be writing Part II the same way, and will have it up and posted here in about a week or so. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who reblogged, liked, encouraged, and keysmashed over on Tumblr, especially fanwright, who gave me some key, late-night feedback in a...uh...crucial moment, storywise. ;) You guys are awesome!

They were fighting again.

Just like they had been since he'd arrived at the palace last week. She was pretty sure she'd started it this time, but it hardly mattered. Their raised voices ricocheted through the polite conversation of Zuzu's stuff little dinner party like an errant volley of hellfire.

“You're an idiot!”

“And you need to get off of your high horse, Princess!”

“How dare you speak to me like that?”

“Truth hurts!”

“Hey! HEY!” Zuko interrupted, pushing between Sokka and Azula with a shove. “Look, you two have been at each other's throats all week, and I'm tired of it! Act like grown ups for once! Sokka, she's baiting you! Azula...whatever you're doing, stop it!”

Azula's eyes flashed. “I'm not doing anything! He's—”

“Me? Princess, I know _exactly_ what you're doing, even if you don't,” Sokka said, and something in the tone of his voice made her stomach drop. She met his gaze—as blue as icebergs—and then looked away, crossing her arms over her chest. A little smile quirked his lips and it was smug. “But I think you do.”

Her mouth opened a little. And then shut again. Her pulse was racing all of a sudden.

Zuko looked between them and then threw up his hands. “I don't want to know. Just stop going at each other all the damned time!”

And with that, the Fire Lord walked away in disgust, leaving her standing there staring at that knowing smile on Sokka's lips. Oh, that mouth. That stupid, stubborn, smart ass mouth of his... If only he'd use it for—

But she stopped that thought dead in its tracks, her eyes widening. Her chin jutted out as she raised it. “What are you staring at?”

“You.”

“Well, stop,” she snapped.

“You don't want me to, and we both know that.”

“Ugh!” she said, holding up a hand and turning on her heel. She marched away from him, through the onlookers who had watched their fight from the sidelines, past servants with trays of food and through the double doors that lead into the labyrinthine guts of the palace. The party fell away behind her as she entered the quiet hush of the echoing corridors, her soft little party shoes barely making a sound on the marble floors. Her red dress trailed the floor with a swish of stiff fabric.

When she heard the hard drum of his footsteps behind her, she bit down on inside of her lip. Heat climbed up the back of her neck, but she didn't turn around. Instead, she turned a corner, leading him down a seldom-used corridor, straight into the most lonely section of the palace.

Her heart was hammering in her chest.

“You know what your problem is?” Sokka shot at her as he stamped after her. She lifted her voluminous red skirt off of the floor and rolled her eyes.

“I don't have a problem! _You do!_ ”

“Yeah, and that problem is you! _Your_ problem is you're tired of playing nice all the time, Princess!” Sokka snapped, as she rounded yet another corner and stamped into another deserted hallway. She knew every twist and turn of the palace, every hidden nook and out of the way cranny...

Heat flooded her cheeks and whipped around to face the tall Water Tribe man, with his stupid haircut and his dumb, dreamy blue eyes, and his broad shoulders, and big hands, and that idiotic mouth that never shut up. She felt the heat flash up her spine as she glared at him.

“Take that back! I've never played nice once in my entire life and you know it!”

“Sure you haven't,” Sokka said sarcastically, and scrunched his nose at the same time—a combination that made her throat tighten. Her fists clenched, nails digging into her palms. “I've been watching you.”

“I know you have. You can't keep your eyes off of me,” she said, brow arching. It was the truth and they both knew it. How often had she found his gaze drifting toward her the last week? And how often had she said something nasty to him just to rile him up? Zuko was right, she'd been baiting him all week.

It would have been less satisfying if it hadn't worked every single time.

His tongue ran along the inside of his lower lip and she felt something, something familiar go through her. It was like a cyclone. Her skin buzzed and she felt more heat expand through her chest. He took a step forward.

“Same to you,” he said, cocking his head at her, brows rising. “I think you like what you see.”

“I think you're a cocky, smug, arrogant little shit!”

“And I think you're bored of being the good girl at Zuko's little dinner parties. I think you miss being bad.”

“You think that's why I've been picking fights with you?”

“That,” he said with a nod, and then grinned savagely. “And you want to fuck me so bad that it's pissing you off.”

She stared at him. He stared at her. She could see him daring her to deny it, just daring her to.

“You think I want to fuck you?” she said in a very calm, very hushed voice. Everything inside of her seemed to stop, to wait.

“Absolutely.”

“You,” she said, advancing on him, her finger jabbing into his chest, “ _arrogant—_ ”

Sokka laughed, and swiped her hand away. “You already called me that.”

“—Self-important—” Jab. Jab. “—Immature—” Jab. Jab.

“Sexy!” he interjected as she jabbed at him again. “Don't forget sexy!”

“You're not sexy! You're—you're—” But she didn't have the words. Sokka swiped her hand away again and caught her around the waist, surprising her. He pulled her close, practically yanking her against his chest. She caught herself with both hands on his shoulders, looking up at him with wide eyes.

“Dying to kiss you,” he finished for her, leaning in, his gaze searching hers. Her pulse jumped buildings in a single pound, pounding in her ears as she lifted up on tiptoe almost immediately. “But only if you want me to, Princess.”

Her teeth scored her bottom lip for a moment, seeing the out for what it was. She could push him away, save herself some dignity here and never admit what they both knew. She glanced at his mouth, at those gorgeous lips that had been the bane of her existence for far too long.

“I like it when you call me Princess,” she said and then slammed her mouth to his.

Everything was a heated rush. She could feel his hands in her hair, his lips—Spirits, his lips!—against hers, making a mad mockery of her. Desire raked through her as she clutched him. His kiss was rough and hard, and she matched it with her own.

She was vaguely aware, through the gasps against his lips between kisses and the racing dash of her heart, of him moving them, practically picking her up and shoving her against the nearest wall. She gasped as the cool marble made contact with her bare shoulders. He swallowed the gasp with his mouth, his tongue plunging against hers. His taste flooded her tongue as she flicked it against his, turning her head to capture his mouth at a different angle.

He groaned into her...and caught her hands, pinning them to the wall beside her head. Her fingers laced with his, feeling the rough bump and grind of his pelvis against hers.

Her mind raced in little circles. He was kissing her! She was kissing him! And he was good at it! The bastard!

She unlaced one hand and slid it around his neck, pulling him that much closer. Sokka's kiss deepened, his mouth dashing wildly across hers. He let go of her other hand and wrapped one arm around her waist, pulling her up against him and then back into the wall again. One thigh pressed into her skirt, pushing against her crotch. The pressure of him there made her gasp against his lips. Her hips pushed back and forth against his thigh, the lace of her panties rubbing against the sensitive nub of her clit.

“ _Unnnggg..._ ”

Had she just made that sound? That desperate, needy little noise that spilled into the air between them, and made Sokka's thigh press harder in between her legs.

His hands were everywhere, cupping her breasts, working beneath her clothing. She didn't stop him. On the contrary, she lifted her skirt for him, throwing one thigh against his as he fit his big body even more snugly against hers. He rocked against her, promising her something rough and hot and blissful.

And oh, how she wanted it.

"Yes, yes, _yes, yes_..." she breathed as his fingers pressed in between her thighs, beneath her panties, and gliding through the dripping folds of her pussy. She was so wet already. Warmth suffused her cheeks as he dipped his fingers inside of her, drawing out the moisture. Her hips tilted for more, a deeper penetration, but he pulled his hand out from between them, surprising her into making a protesting noise.

Ice blue eyes met hers and burned with an intensity that scorched her. Slowly, he slid his fingers into his mouth, flicking the tip of his tongue between his fingers before sucking at each fingertip one by one. Savoring her. Her pussy clenched, need tightening her throat. Her eyes blazed.

He dropped his fingers and leaned in to her ear, nuzzling at her as she pressed herself against the wall. She realized how out of control she was, how easily he had made her break, and didn't care one inch.

"Mmm... Azula..." Sokka rumbled in her ear. "You taste like cherries."

She caught his wolf's tail, turning his head to slam a groaning kiss to his mouth. He laughed against her lips, but the sound turned into a moan as she lifted her hips into the press of his body. He propped one hand on the wall beside her head and caught her under one knee, thrusting against her with a rough dig that made the blood pound in her ears.

She gasped, turning her head. Immediately he latched onto her throat, his teeth and lips and tongue scoring her flesh and sending little thrills down her flushed skin. His hips jerked against hers, rubbing, grinding so hard she felt like she might break any moment.

"Sokka?" she gasped, eyes rolling back, breath heaving. He acknowledged her with a little grunt in his throat, sucking at her pulse point and scattering licks of fire down her skin. "I want you to fuck me."

His lips grazed her skin, and she felt his laugh as it hummed up her throat to her ear. "Oh, I plan to, Princess."

"Don't get cocky," Azula ground out through her teeth, her tongue flicking out and razing a blistering hot path up his neck. His hips surged forward, showing her just how cocky he was. She tipped her hips forward, one hand on his lower back, fisting in his blue shirt.

"Would you like me to take you to bed?" Sokka whispered, his voice low and rough in that way that set her soul on fire. She shivered at the thought of writhing beneath him as he held her down and took her—or better yet, holding him down while she rode him. She liked the thought of that a little too much, and the fantasy spilled across her senses in a tumbling rush that made her head spin.

Oh, the idea of having him in her bed...at her mercy... His arching voice called her back from that delicious fantasy.

"Or...?" he said archly, calling her out of her fantasies.

"Or what?" she managed, before he grabbed her and spun her in place. She found herself shoved against the wall, the marble cool against her heated cheek. Sokka's big hands caught her skirt, pulling it up and out of his way even as he pressed his bound erection against her ass. One of his hands then caught her hair, tilting her head back.

"Or I could fuck you right here," he said as she gasped. He thrust against her, pushing her into the wall, his hands digging into her hips. His teeth scored her neck, pulling at the skin as she braced herself on the wall, her mouth opening on a strangled moan.

Little shots of electricity ran through her skin from the hard suction of his mouth and she writhed backward, shamelessly trying to ease the ache deep inside of her. He lifted his mouth and skimmed her ear, biting on it, sending those hard zaps of pleasure straight through her pussy.

She almost pushed him away. She didn't like being manhandled...or at least she was sure she didn't, since no one before him had ever dared to shove her against a wall like this, but something about the heat in his voice, the warmth of his body against hers... And the idea of him taking her, there, now...like he wanted her as much as she wanted him... Like he couldn't wait...

Azula turned her head, and caught his eye, even as she reached back and pulled her underwear down her thighs. Slowly, Sokka pulled a simmering smile.

Her pulse raced as he reached between them, undoing his pants with a jerk. Then he stepped closer, pushing her into the wall again. She felt his cock against her ass, thick, and hard, and soft at the same time. His booted foot caught her slippered one and she gasped when he shoved her legs a little farther apart. She couldn't go far, not with her underwear still encircling her thighs.

His mouth nipped her ear again, sending those shots of pleasure scattering through her overheated body like crows on the wind. She pushed backward against him again, and felt him guide himself between her legs from behind. His cock slid along her wet seam, the ridge of his head rubbing back and forth across her engorged clit. She shocked herself with a whimper, as he pulled back just enough to find her opening. He pressed in, so wide and thick that her mouth opened, eyes squeezing shut.

Sokka made a noise, something like a groan, a soft, deep exhale that sounded like her name. Then he grasped her hips in both hands, jerking her lower body back against his so hard that she found herself impaled on his cock. Her hand slapped the wall, nails digging in, her back arching.

"Fuck!" she forced out through her teeth, pressing back into him. Sokka surged back and then forward again, opening her to him with a hard jerk. She felt every rock hard inch of him, felt him in the heart of her. And she loved it.

She wiggled forward, her thighs tightening, her pussy clenching around his length. Sokka wrapped his arms around her waist and her chest, pulling her back against his body. She braced her hands on the wall as Sokka rocked against her, taking her in shallow little thrusts that made her bite down on her lip to keep screams out of her mouth. He kissed along her neck, her jaw, and then turned her head. His kiss was shallow, off-center, and playful.

When he pulled back and thrust again, harder than before, her head fell back against his shoulder, a short little yelp leaving her. Sokka laughed and thrust again, just as hard.

"You like that?"

"Yes..." she panted as his arm tightened on her waist. When he scored her neck his teeth again, she could feel his muscles gathering. Her pulse jumped again, her heart slamming in her chest like a frantic, caged animal. He thrust again and she cried out, unable to stop the sound. The sound birthed an echo, her pleasure ringing in her ears. When Sokka's hand covered her mouth she squeaked and started to pull it away, but he stopped her.

"I'd like nothing more than to hear you scream, Princess, but this isn't exactly a private place," Sokka said against her ear. She could hear the amusement in his voice. The smug surety.

Her elbow rammed back into his ribs, and the hand over her mouth dropped away as he let out an _oof_ of pain. She pushed him away and turned back around to face him. His blue eyes glittered as she grasped him by the front of the shirt and pulled him close.

"I don't give a fuck about privacy," she said and then yanked him down by the front of his shirt. He went willingly, hitting his knees in front of her. He looked up at her with an open mouth, tongue lolling against his lush lower lip. He had his glistening cock in his hand, stroking it. Just seeing it... Her blood seemed to pump harder, and she could feel it throbbing deep inside of her womb. She reached forward and caught his wolf's tail again, even as she caught her skirt and jerked it up in the front. "You really want to make me scream? Prove it."

And she shoved his face between her legs.

Sokka moaned, catching her by the hips as his mouth traced ravenous kisses along her belly and thighs. Azula made a noise a bit like the screech of an angry cat and pushed him closer, where she wanted him to be. He laughed, that deep humming laugh that made her skin feel tight and hot, and then slid his tongue against her clit, strafing it.

Her head tipped back against the wall as she tilted her hips forward, surging into the wet, warm strop of his tongue against her clit. He flicked it, teased it, and then pulled it between his lips with another groan that they both shared. She tried to spread her legs more, but her underwear stopped her.

His attentions were single-minded, focusing on the little bud of her pleasure, relentlessly stroking it with his tongue and then pulling at it until she found herself shaking in place. She dropped her skirt, but he didn't seem to mind. When she felt his fingers press into her again, she cried out and surged forward into the heat of his mouth. He filled her, stretched her, pressing against that warm, spongy place inside of her that ached and throbbed for more.

Again, she tried to spread her legs, but her underwear stopped her. Cursing, she reached down and caught the thin red lace. It snapped with a rip and she eagerly threw her leg over his shoulder. He laughed again, and the sound ran warm fingers all over her sweaty skin. He pressed hard into her pussy, rubbing little circles.

Another cry left her, her leg shaking. She felt his free hand under the thigh slung over his shoulder, holding her up.

"So eager."

She caught his hair again and pressed him forward. "Did I say stop?"

"No, Princess."

"Then put that mouth to work." He laughed again, but did as he was told. White-hot licks of pleasure circled out through her womb as he fucked her with his mouth, his fingers pressing, rubbing deep inside of her. She was dripping, the wet sound indecent in the echoing hallway. His tongue flicked and slid against her quivering clit until she was panting, gasping, her mouth open, her leg shaking. "I'm going to come...don't stop..."

He took her clit into his mouth, pulling on it, the tip of his tongue flicking back and forth as he suckled it. It was too much.

Azula pushed off of the wall, a scream escaping her as white-hot sparkles tore through her body, centering in the place where his mouth—his stupid, wonderful mouth—was attached to her. Her pussy clenched on his fingers, gushing as her hips drove forward and back against his face. He released her throbbing clit, and then ran his tongue along it flatly, making the sensations start all over again. She pulsed and quivered, all of her weight leaning forward onto his broad shoulder.

As she slowly came down from her climax, she felt his mouth trail back to her thighs, licking at the moisture there. She felt warm, her muscles quivering, lips swollen... His fingers pulling out of her with another wet slish. She let out a breath and pulled her skirt back, exposing his head to the air.

Sokka looked up at her, that slow grin on his wet lips. His face was red, sweat on his forehead. "You screamed."

Her lips twisted. "Only to swell your fragile ego."

"It's not my ego's that swollen, Princess." His brow quirked charmingly. A soft laugh left her, despite herself. And that was the problem really. As annoying as she found him, she also found him devastatingly attractive. He'd been right. It was why she kept picking fights with him, and why she had led him into this corridor in the first place. She hated that he'd known it, that he'd seen right through her. Not many people could do that, but oh, he had.

They stared at one another for a long, heat-filled moment, desire racing between them. She could see how much he wanted her in his eyes, how much he needed her.

When she dropped her leg from his shoulder and crooked her finger at him in invitation, he didn't hesitate.

He surged to his feet, his mouth slamming to hers with breath-stealing force, his mouth open and eager for her. She felt the sweep of his tongue, felt that rush go through her again as his taste flooded her mouth. She could taste herself too, and it made her moan and wrap her arms around his neck, pulling herself up and against him.

Sokka shoved her dress up again and then picked her up. She gasped, breaking away from his mouth. Her legs wrapped around his waist on instinct. She groaned his name when she felt him there against her, the tip of his cock there, just _there..._

He pulled her down, impaling her with one swift thrust that had her clutching him, her nails digging into his neck, and the back of his head. Her thighs tightened as he filled her, pressing hard inside of her.

He hissed in a breath against her neck and she felt a shudder go through him. The sensation rippled through her, exploding at the place where their bodies were connected. It expanded through her womb, into her belly, her limbs, the very heart of her. "I love being inside of you."

Her back hit the wall. Their mouths found one another's again and she kissed him, desperately. He braced himself on the wall with one hand, the other on her lower back, gripping her hip, urging her to rock against the cradle of his hips. Her spine arched, flexed, taking him in deep, in shallow thrusts. Her thighs tightened and released with every push. The kiss went on and on, deep and dark. Pleasure gripped her, knocking stars in her vision with each grinding thrust.

She could feel her body coiling again, threatening another climax that would devastate her. Her body clenched at his, convulsively and she broke away from his mouth. The sound that split the air between them surprised her. It was a needy sound, soft and capitulating.

"Uhhhhnnn... Sokka..."

He pressed forward, changing the angle as her lower back hit the wall. He pinned her to the wall, bracing his powerful thighs beneath hers. The sudden change pressed him against the wonderful bundle of nerves deep inside of her and she cried out again. The sound of her pleasure spurred him on, and the sharp, short push of his hips against hers bounced her ass against the wall, again and again and again, raking against her g-spot.

She tightened around him, her jaw clenching, his breath hot and wild against her neck. He mumbled something against her ear, but she was crying out uncontrollably with every rough snap of his hips and the words were lost to the echoes in the corridor. The pleasure surging through her was so intense, she felt sweat pouring down her back. Her eyes rolled up in her head as she tightened her thighs, pushing into his thrust, mindlessly lost to him.

The pressure inside of her built and then broke like a dam collapsing. Pleasure expanded through her in waves that made her dangling feet shake. Sokka stilled, letting her tremble her way through it, groaning at the squeeze of her body around his. She could feel his racing heartbeat deep inside of her and against her chest. He pulled back until only the tip of him was inside of her, and then plunged back in, making her cry out. He did it again and again, and each time she could only clutch him, practically clawing at him.

He pulled back and filled her again, and then stayed there, pressing her hips into the wall, grinding into her with rough little circles of his hips. The movement pressed his pubic bone into her clit, flattening it with a rough rub. His mouth was on her neck, sending those thrills of electricity down through her skin. The tremors of her climax built again, too fast, too strong, gaining momentum in her. She let out a gasp, too breathless by half, and then felt the first shockwave hit her, centered so deep and hard inside of her she was sure he was splitting her in two.

She stopped breathing for nearly a full minute, as the pressure and pleasure built into a roaring, raging thing inside of her. She broke with an even harder convulsion than before, a squeezing, gushing orgasm that shocked the breath back into her. She panted, shaking harder than before, only vaguely aware of him murmuring her name against her neck. She could feel how wet she was, could feel it slicking both of them.

She didn't think she'd ever come so hard in her life.

"I love how tight your pussy gets when I make you come," Sokka mumbled against her neck. "It makes me want to fuck you even more."

"You...you are...fucking me... _idiot_ ," she panted, surprised at how out of breath she was. Sokka's laugh was a hum against her throat, but she noticed he was panting too. Sweat slicked his neck, rolling down his temples. She licked at his skin, tasting the salt there.

Fuck, even his sweat tasted good.

"Damn right I am," he said and playfully captured her lips. She kissed him, feeling the smile against her mouth. She teasingly nibbled on his lip and when she pulled back, he met her gaze. His hips worked back and forth, shallowly filling her. His eyes were hooded with desire, his cheeks red. He readjusted his stance, pressing her back in the wall. It was probably getting hard to hold her up, but he didn't look like he was tired of it yet. He didn't look like he was flagging at all.

It didn't _feel_ like he was flagging at all either. His cock was rock hard inside of her, and she could feel every wonderful inch of him.

Something dark and greedy inside of her purred in pleasure. Mmm....the stamina of him...

Her pussy clenched again, stroking him length like a fist. She saw Sokka's reaction to that and did it again, on purpose, tightening her muscles. His eyes slammed shut, those shallow, soft thrusts coming a little faster.

"Yes..." she breathed, pushing her hips forward into his, surprised at how easily the pleasure came, how close she was to tumbling over into ecstasy. He was going to make her come again.

She was going to make sure of that.

"Look at me," Azula gasped as Sokka rocked her against the wall. His eyes fluttered open, trapping in those blue irises. She'd thought his eyes were icy before, as cold as a frozen ocean, but there was fire there, blooming, wild fire that sparked and ignited something deep inside of her.

She knew that fire, that blue glow. It was the fire that raged inside of her and oh, it was in him too... How had she never suspected that? Her head went forward, resting her forehead against his so that his breath spilled in a warm rush against her open, panting lips. She stroked the back of his neck, feeling a deep possessiveness in her.

Sokka glanced down between them, where her red, gold-trimmed dress was scrunched up in a mass between them.

"The minute you walked out in this dress all I could think of was tearing it off of you," Sokka mumbled as the push and pull between them became a deep, hard rock that locked their bodies together. Sweat puddled at the small of her back beneath the stupid dress she'd worn to that stuffy dinner her brother had thrown for his idiotic guests.

"I'm still wearing it, so I guess we don't always get what we want," she said, and surprised them both with a breathless laugh. Sokka's easy smile simmered against her lips, those bluebell flame eyes scorching her. The look in his eyes...

Oh, he knew. _He knew._

"You do, Princess," he said, his nose brushing hers, his voice that chest deep rumble that made her skin feel like it was going to unzip and spill her heart on the floor.

"Yes, I do," she said and caught his lip with her teeth. The playful bite turned into a hard, breath-stealing kiss that plunged her into another desperate, warm rush of wild, uncontrollable ecstasy. It came on her with a tumbling, blistering heat, spilling out of her center like a wildfire. He took her there gently this time, her push of his hips deliberate. He knew exactly how to fuck her... "Yes..."

"Come for me," he said between kisses, but it wasn't a command, it was a plea. He wanted her pleasure as much as she did. Something about the way he said it... It was like a prayer.

She broke with a full-body tremble, her head tilting back. She stared at the ceiling, heaving, sweat drenching her in a wave. Her hair was sticking to her neck. The trembles seemed to go on and on, and he didn't pull away. He stilled inside of her, letting her quiver around him. His mouth trailed lazy kisses along her neck, her collarbone. He licked at her sweat and sucked at her pulse point again, just in the way she liked.

"No one's ever—" she started, but stopped, heat flooding her already red cheeks.

Sokka ran his nose up her bared throat, dragging his lower lip against her chin. When she tilted her head down he angled a shallow kiss across her mouth, his tongue rolling against hers. When he pulled back, he whispered, "I know."

She caught his face in both hands and pulled back enough to stare into his eyes again. She felt her heart lurch and it made her shake all over again, but for a very different reason. She tightened her thighs on his hips and his eyes slammed shut.

"Getting tired?" she purred.

"I'm...I'm close..." he said, a hitch in his breathing.

"Are you?" she said, eyebrow arching. She arched her back, taking him to the hilt again. Sokka groaned, his eyes slamming shut, mouth flattening to a thin line. She did it again and he pushed into her with a snap, shoving her back against the wall.

"Azula...fuck..." He swallowed loudly and she felt a tremor go through him. His cock twitched inside of her and the sensation made her grin lasciviously. "Keep doing that and I'll come inside of you."

"Wouldn't want that," she said, licking the sweat from his neck. She nibbled on his ear, feeling his cock twitch again. He groaned and pumped against her. "Put me down then."

Slowly he lifted her between himself and the wall, his hands beneath her ass. They both whimpered at the sensation. She bit down on her lip, feeling sore and wet. The inside of her thighs were slick with her own moisture, evidence of the climax after climax he'd worked her into. She felt a rush, her pulse spinning at the thought of more, that she wanted more. When Sokka stepped back and set her on her feet, her knees nearly collapsed on her.

He caught her and she felt her legs tremble, threatening to steal what little dignity she had left.

"Easy..." Sokka said against her ear. She looked up into his eyes—up!—he was so damned tall and broad and sexy and she suddenly wanted to climb him again, wobbly legs and all. What the hell had he done to her? Desire rushed through her. "I've got you."

Her hand reached between them, her fingers encircling the slick length of his cock. It twitched at her touch and Sokka hissed in a breath, clutching her. His eyes flashed.

"Looks like I've got you, too," she said, and then dropped to her wobbly knees in front of him.

If he was surprised when she took him into her mouth, he wasn't the only one.

Sokka stuttered out something unintelligible and she felt his hand at the back of her neck, gently urging her mouth down on him. With another gargantuan leap, her pulse rocketed even higher when she realized just how big he was. His cock filled her mouth, opening her jaws wide and pressing her tongue down flat. The blunt tip pressed against the back of her throat easily.

She glanced up at him, watching him as he watched her through slitted eyes. He hissed in a breath as she pulled off of him, sheathed her teeth with her lips and then took him into her mouth again. Her hand followed, fist squeezing the veined contours of his sleek cock. He tasted like her body, musky and tangy with salt. A little burst of pre-cum flooded onto her tongue and she pulled back, swallowing it with a gulp.

"Fuck, that's hot..." Sokka mumbled, leaning against the wall, watching her with those glittering flame eyes. She pulled a sharp grin and ran her mouth along his shaft. When she nipped at him, he jumped and surged forward, into her fingers. "Shoulda known you were a biter."

"I just like seeing you twitch," she said, running her tongue up his shaft and then into the slit at the tip, slowly teasing it. He twitched in her fingers, his hips rocking forward into the squeeze of her hand.

"Torturing me more like," he said, and the bit of his stomach she could see between them of his rucked up shirt, and his open pants flexed deliciously. She sat up and attached her mouth to that bit of flesh, running teeth up the muscle and biting down on the deep cut of his hip bone. Her fingers slipped and slid around him as he groaned and thrust into her palm. "Azu—unnng..."

He shuddered again, that full body thrust that made her look up at him again. His eyes were closed, mouth open in a pant as she stroked him. Oh, he was close. And completely hers.

He made a deep _M_ _mmm_ noise when she put her mouth back around him, taking him in with short, shallow thrusts of her head. She sucked at him, hard. Hard enough to make him groan and thrust into her mouth with every bob of her head. "Yes—ffffuck—I'm—"

She didn't pull away, her fist and her mouth together, squeezing, stroking, sucking as hard as she dared. And she watched him come completely undone in her hands, feeling something savage inside of her, something possessive, something greedy.

He came with a grunt of her name, pushing into her mouth with a rough shove of his hips. Warm, salty liquid spurted onto her tongue, flooding her mouth. His hips flexed with each hard jet of cum, and she moved with him, her hand pumping him.

"Oh, _fuuuuuuuuck..._ "

She rode out his orgasm, her tongue swirling against him, the salty warmth of him gushing around her lips. She pulled off of him and caught every drip with the tip of her tongue, and when she looked up at him, she saw that he was watching her, panting open-mouthed, those blue flame eyes scorching. Gazes connected, she opened her mouth and, with a grin, showed him in the load in her mouth.

 _Look what I made you do_ , she tried to tell him with her eyes. _And now it's all mine._

His eyes flashed, and she saw his teeth score his bottom lip and she knew he knew. She closed her mouth and swallowed with a soft hum of pleasure, the warmth of him in her throat. She licked her lips and then grinned, tugging him closer. She kissed the tip of cock as a laugh bubbled up out of her.

Sokka cursed, leaning forward and resting his sweaty forehead against the wall. "Fuck, you're trying to kill me. This is how I die. Fucked to death by a gorgeous Princess."

"I could light you on fire if you'd rather go out screaming," she offered and then thought of how hard he'd fucked her into the wall. Her cheeks reddened again. "Besides, I think I'm the one who was nearly fucked to death."

"You weren't complaining," he said, even as he reached down, practically lifting her to her feet like she weighed nothing more than a child's ragdoll. She didn't have time to protest, not before he pushed her against the wall again. His mouth landed on hers and she found herself kissing him, her arms looping around his neck.

She was chagrined to discover that her legs were still wobbly. And she was totally exasperated at how much just kissing him excited her.

He didn't seem to mind tasting himself in her mouth; his tongue swirled against hers and he moaned into it. She kissed him back just as hard, her middle a jangle of confusion.

She'd been so sure fucking him would at least get him out of her mind. She'd thought— _surely—_ that all she'd needed was to indulge herself once, to scratch the itch her inexplicable attraction to him seemed to cause whenever he was near. That was why she'd practically dared him to follow her out of that stupid dinner party... She'd thought surely he would take the hint, and he had, but...

_Still._

She felt bewildered by the whole thing. She could already tell this one time would not be enough. She wanted to fuck him again. And again. And again.

Sokka pulled back. They were both panting, covered in sweat, their clothes in disarray. The air smelled like sex. It made her blood heat even more. Her pussy clenched with desire as he stared into her eyes.

"Someone's going to wonder where we went," he said.

"I don't care."

"I don't either."

They stared at one another. She nibbled on her lower lip and then blew out a breath. "Look, I don't know how to say this, but would you—"

"Pretend this never happened? Of course, Princess," he said and stepped away from her, leaving her to blink in surprise.

"What—"

"This was a lot of fun."

_A lot of fun?_

Her sex-blasted mind rolled that sentence over once, twice, and then went blank again.

"I...suppose." Fun wasn't exactly the word she'd have used for being fucked until she screamed, but okay.

He was doing up his pants, pants that were wet with from her body. His hands shook a little. He glanced up at her and then back down at his work on his laces. "Yeah. So I should go."

"Go," she said, but it wasn't a question or a command.

He'd fucked her into the wall. And he was...leaving.

Azula stood there with her pussy throbbing, the taste of his cum in her mouth, her legs as wobbly as a newborn kitten, and could not, for the life of her, wrap her mind around what was happening.

"Yeah, umm... You know, it's cool, I get it. You'd probably die of shame if anyone knew, so—" Sokka said, and looked up at her again. "So I won't mention it. No worries."

"You won't." Her voice was as flat as the wall at her back.

"Yeah, it was... It was no big deal." He rubbed at the back of his neck, where she knew she'd put welts with her fingernails.

_No big deal._

Fucking her was _no big deal?_

Uh-huh.

"Right," she said, her brows drawing together in the middle.

The words "no big deal" echoed in her head, but she couldn't wrap her head around them, or why she could feel heat in palms all of a sudden. Like she was about to manifest fire.

He swallowed and his throat bobbed. "So I'll see you later. Uh...thanks for...uh... The sex."

And he leaned forward and awkwardly landed a kiss on her cheek. She froze in place, vaguely annoyed at the way the touch of his lips to her skin made her whole body ache, or the way the scent of him made her heart squeeze tightly in her chest, because he was thanking her for sex and walking away.

What in the hell was happening?

"Uh..."

But he pulled away before she could make her tongue work itself around the words crowding her throat. He met her gaze for one heart-stopping moment, and then nodded, and walked away, leaving her standing there against the wall with her dress all rumpled, her torn underwear discarded at her feet, her pussy wet and swollen, and her neck bruising from his kisses. She blinked and he was just gone.

And she did nothing to stop him.

Azula blinked again and let out a breath. She stared off into space for one long moment. His voice seemed to echo in her head.

_No big deal._

_Or I could fuck you right here?_

_No big deal._

_You taste like cherries._

_No big deal._

"He fucked me," Azula said slowly to the empty, sex-scented corridor, "He fucked me and then he ran away. No big deal? _NO BIG DEAL!?_ Who the FUCK does he think he is!?"

Azula pushed away from the wall and jerked her skirt down, a sound like the screech of an angry, indignant cat tearing out of her throat. Fire the color of his eyes came shooting out of her nostrils as she stamped her foot, willing her wobbly legs into working again. Her eyes narrowed.

She was going to _kill_ him.


	2. Part II

_**PART II** _

 

* * *

 

Sweat ran down Sokka’s back as he marched down the hallway, one shaking hand over his mouth. His eyes were popping wide, and he was pretty sure his heart was going to thump its way out of his chest at any moment. His thighs were screaming, the muscles tense, like he’d run a marathon.

But he hadn’t run a marathon.

No.

No, he’d fucked Azula against a wall until she screamed, clutching at him, whimpering his name, every delicious inch of her his for the taking. And he’d taken her. Again and again and again. He could still feel her, wet and warm as he filled her. He could still hear her voice, breathy, demanding… The image of her taking his cock into her mouth…and then that look in her eyes when she’d shown him his cum in her mouth…

He was pretty sure he was going to remember that for the rest of his life.

He turned one corner and stopped, unsure of where he was. He’d been too focused on Azula to pay much attention to where she’d been leading them before, and now he was lost.

“Shit,” he mumbled and dropped his hand. He took a hard breath and sank back against the nearest wall. He needed a moment. He needed several moments. Perhaps several days. A month-long sabbatical in an icy shower. His eyes stared blankly into the middle-distance. “I can’t believe I had sex with Azula. I fucked her. I can’t believe I just… I fucked her.”

But he could believe it, really. He’d been fantasizing about sleeping with her for ages–far too long, if he was honest with himself. He’d always thought that she might, possibly, be as attracted to him as he was to her, but he hadn’t ever really, genuinely thought anything would come of it. Until this week.

She’d been everywhere. Watching him with those bored citrine eyes and that pouty smirk on her red lips that made him want to grab her by the back of the neck and taste her. And the fighting! It was like she’d been going out of her way to antagonize him. He may have been angry if he hadn’t been enjoying every second of it. It hadn’t taken long before he’d realized they weren’t fighting, not really. Every dig was laced with desire. She had been flirting with him, daring him to rise to the challenge. He still wasn’t even sure she’d been aware of it though. And for some reason that made it all the worse for him.

Sokka glanced down at the front of his wet pants, remember the feel of her legs wrapped around his waist, of her bouncing on his cock, coming so hard he came a hairsbreadth to following her every single time. Rise to the challenge? Oh yes, he’d risen. And then some. He’d never wanted anyone more in his entire life.

His cock twitched and rose to half-mast at the mere memory of her touch. He could still taste her in his mouth, that cherry flavor that seemed to cling to his lips. He cursed under his breath, and ran his shaky hand down his sweaty face. He was still hard for her. Just the memory of kissing her did things to him.

He smiled a little and ran his tongue along his swollen bottom lip for a moment, but then the expression faded as reality hit home.

He’d fucked her…and that was all it would ever be. It would never happen again and he knew it. What else could he expect from her? It had clearly been a moment of madness for the both of them, a hormone-soaked decision that, had he been thinking with anything other than his cock, he might have done differently.

After all, fucking the crown Princess of the Fire Nation in an open corridor wasn’t exactly the smartest thing he’d ever done. He still would have slept with her, but he might have taken her back to her room, or his. He would have taken his time… He would have savored the moment, knowing he’d never get the chance again.

Because he knew–he KNEW–that she wasn’t interested in anything more than that. Why would she be?

She was probably mortified right now. She’d fucked a “peasant”, as she so often called him in their arguments. He’d have to be crazy to assume it was anything but a one-time thing, to release the weird tension between them. It didn’t mean anything. It had just been a good, hard fuck for the both of them and it would easier if he just thought of her, and what they’d just done, in those terms, but…

But.

But he liked her. Genuinely liked her.

And it didn’t mean a damned thing.

He’d realized that in the hallway, when he’d seen her formulating her escape plans. There had been something in her eyes… Clearly she was about to tell him to fuck off and never tell anyone. What else would Azula do BUT that? He couldn’t imagine that she would be interested in…

But he shook his head.

There was no way Azula would do anything but shove him away. It wasn’t like she even liked him as a person. It had been sex, and nothing more. So he’d done the only thing he could and left. It had been the smart move, right?

Because if he’d stayed…

 _If I’d stayed, I may have done something stupid,_ he thought to himself and then squeezed his eyes shut.

Stupid? That was putting it lightly. He may have started writing love sonnets to her beauty if he’d stayed there looking at her in that gorgeous, rumpled dress, sweaty and red-faced, with those bedroom eyes and that smudged red mouth, bruises from his mouth popping up all over that delicious neck of hers…

Oh yeah, he was definitely fucked. He rubbed the back of his neck and winced when he felt the welts there. Funny how he hadn’t felt them when she’d been clutching at him, crying out his name in ecstasy…and…

“FUCK!” Sokka cursed, slamming his fist against the wall, just as a servant bearing a load of linens came around the corner. Trying his best to hide his wet pants, he got directions back to the guest wing, and hastily booked it in that direction. As he walked, he came to a sudden decision.

He needed to leave. Tonight.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to handle just seeing her in the hallways or at breakfast, or, Spirits forbid, at Zuko’s morning meeting. He wouldn’t be able to keep his heart out of his eyes. And if she suspected that he might actually be feeling something for her… She would be savage. Or embarrassed. Or both. It was better to give her space. And get over whatever weird thing was going on in his chest.

“That’s the coward’s way out,” he mumbled to himself as he reached the door of his guest suite.

The coward’s way, yes, but it was his only option. He’d pack up and leave before morning. He’d have to send Zuko a letter of apology…and hope there was a ship he could book passage on down in the harbor city…

His mind was preoccupied with packing as he unlocked the door and stepped inside the suite.

He didn’t see the fireball coming at all.

It missed him by a hairsbreadth. The heat of it scorched his skin as it passed just in front of his nose, and exploded against the wooden door with a hot, searing rain of blue sparks and ashes. Sokka yelped, reeling away from the sudden, inexplicable rain of fire.

"YOU!"

His mouth hanging open, he whipped around to face the rest of the room, shocked when his bewildered eyes clapped onto the woman standing in the middle of the room. She had a wild look in her citrine eyes, her teeth bared, her dark hair tumbling down around her shoulders. Blue fire manifested in her hands as he let out a little gasp.

"Azula? WHAT--" But that's all he had time to squeeze out before she tossed another fireball in his direction. He yelped and dove, sprawling on the floor as it exploded against the door in the place where he'd just been. "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"YOU JUST WALKED AWAY!? NO ONE JUST WALKS AWAY FROM ME, YOU--YOU--!" She gave an angry, cat-liked screech and launched another fireball at him. He scrambled to his feet, rolling out of the way as it exploded on the floor. A rug ignited as he tried to find cover.

"AZULA, STOP!" Sokka said, holding up his hands in entreaty when he realized there was nowhere to run. The closest cover was a table ten feet away, but she was closer to it than he was. He had to try and talk her down. "STOP! STOP! STOP! We can talk about this! What's wrong?"

" _You're_ what's wrong! You walk in here like 'oh _la-di-da_ I'm a sexy idiot' and then you fuck me and just—I'm going to kill you! HOLD STILL!" Azula snarled, and scooped another handful of flames out of the thin air. It burned like a blue heart in her fingers as he danced from foot to foot, trying to decide which way to dive.

He went left and that was a mistake, as it presented her with an incredibly tempting target. The fireball slammed into his right buttcheek with a hot slap and set his pants on fire. Sokka screamed and rolled, putting out the fire on the rug. He landed in a sprawl, his ass smoking, the blue wool scorched.

Azula advanced on him, and he immediately scrambled backward, holding up one hand. "Hey! HEY! HEY! LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS! OKAY? I'm confused!"

"Well, that's obvious, you jerk!" she said and for the first time, he saw there were tears in her eyes. He blinked in surprise. Azula...crying...? Why would she be—

His eyes widened. "Oh shit. I fucked up."

"You think so?" she said, pulling down one of those blue fireballs again.

"Shit... Azula... I thought it was... I didn't know, I thought it was no big deal, I--" He stopped as her eyes flashed, her anger redoubling. He scrambled to his feet and danced out of the way.

" _NO BIG DEAL?!_ NO BIG DEAL! Sleeping--" she said between volleys of fireballs that exploded against the marble walls, "--with me--" BANG! "--is--" WHOOSH! "--no--" CRASH! "--big--" BLAM! "--deal!?!"

"WHOA! AZULA! STOP!" , dancing to the right, still trying to find cover before she really started gunning for him and did something truly crazy, like summon lightning. There was a decorative round shield on the wall by the door, painted with red flames and slightly tarnished from age, but he snatched it off of the wall and held it up. "Please?"

"You insulted me!" she said and tossed another handful of flames at him. This one felt half-hearted and it exploded on the shield without him having to move it to protect any of his exposed limbs. Strangely, he took that as a good sign.

"I didn't mean to." That stopped her, but she was seething as he stared at her over the rim of the thin round shield. Her smudged red lips turned into a hard pout that, try as he might considering the circumstances, he still found incredibly sexy.

"Who do you think you are?" she shot at him, brows drawing down low over her turbulent eyes.

"I--what?"

"Who do you think I am? Some....some...slattern?"

"Slattern? _What?!_ I don't think that!" he said honestly. "I wouldn't!"

"Because I don't just sleep around like that. I'm not some cheap slut you can fuck and then discard!"

"I don't think you're a cheap slut! I wasn't, I wasn't using you, I swear!"

"Then why did you say it was no big deal? You think I just do that? You think I just sleep around with every smart ass meathead Water Triber with broad shoulders who walks into my life? You think I'm the type of girl who wants to be left in a hallway alone with my skirt up around my ears?"

"Uhhh...No?"

"Then why did you treat me that way?"

His heart sank into his stomach and the words tumbled out of him before he thought better of them, "I thought you wanted me to."

The outraged expression on her face made him wince and he braced himself for another volley of hellfire, but she seemed too angry to even attack him. "Why would you think that?"

Sokka licked his lips and said carefully as he lowered the shield, "Because I thought you'd be embarrassed that you had sex with me. I thought...shit, I thought I was doing you a favor and not making it awkward for you. Or I don't know... I fucked up. I read the situation totally wrong."

"Yes, you did. Epically wrong!"

"I'm sorry," he said and meant it. "Could you please stop attacking me?"

"No," she said, but didn't make a move to start the barrage of fire again. "I'm still angry at you. You led me on."

"I...did?"

"I thought you liked me."

His brows went up at that and he blinked at her in surprise. "I do. _You're_ the one who doesn't like _me!_ "

"That's not true," she said quickly and then stopped herself, coloring prettily. She looked frustrated.

"You have a funny way of showing it, then. All you do it attack me. Verbally and uh...physically," he said, sidling toward the smoldering rug. He tamped on it with his boot, putting out the flames still merrily burning away. Zuko was going to have to do some redecorating. "I thought you just... I thought you were using me. I was trying not to make it weird."

"Well, you did. And I don't like you. Not anymore."

"But you did?" he asked, brows lifting. He risked walking forward a little, but she shied backward, holding up her hand. When she lifted her chin, he noticed the pattern of bruises his mouth had left on her neck, and felt something go through him, some gust of possessiveness and pride. He bit down on the inside of his lip, and met her gaze.

"Azula, I don't sleep around either, you know. I've only slept with women I have feelings for. Reciprocated or not. I thought this was a not situation...and I kind of... Fuck, I was taking the coward's way out. I didn't want you to know that it meant more to me than it did to you. I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression...but you gotta see things from my end. You're not exactly easy to read."

She glanced down at her feet, chewing on her bottom lip. "I suppose I could see how you...misinterpreted things. But that's no excuse for leaving me in the hallway like that! You made me feel used."

Sokka sighed. "That's the last thing I wanted, Princess. Please, believe me. You deserve better than that and I know it. You deserve better than getting fucked in a hallway, too...but there's no way to take that back, I guess."

"I don't regret the sex," she said and then screwed up her mouth.

"You don't?"

She glanced at him and then sighed. "No."

"Me neither," he said softly and smiled at her. She rolled her eyes and then fidgeted with her rumpled dress. She glanced at him and then squared her shoulders.

"So you like me? Like me, like me? It wasn't just sex?"

"Of course I like you," he said. "I've been trying to hide it, because I thought you'd laugh at me. I didn't think you liked me. I thought you were totally out of my league."

"Well...you're an idiot...and I am out of your league," she said sulkily. "But maybe I like you, too. As something more than a boy toy."

"Boy toy?" he said, brows rising again. His smile was teasing. "I'm no one's boy toy, Princess."

He dropped the shield on the table, judging the danger to be over. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at the ceiling.

"Fine. Love slave, then," she suggested as he slowly approached her. She didn't shy away this time, and he noticed a smile hovering at the corners of her lips.

"That sounds more like it," he said as they drew close together. He caught her gaze and slowly reached up, pushing a lock of her hair out of her face. He tucked it behind her ear, and let his fingers glide down her bruised neck. Something bloomed in her eyes, that desire that he'd seen in the hallway, when he'd been inside of her. "I've got love slave written all over me. How may I serve you, Princess?"

Her lips twitched and she rolled her eyes again. "You're ridiculous."

"I'm sorry. If you want me to beg, I will," he said, as she looked him over. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip, and that desire in her eyes sharpened to knife-like points. When she reached forward, grasping him by the front of his shirt, he didn't even cry out. Not even when she turned him, and shoved him backward into the bed, where he went sprawling on his back.

He sat up his elbows to see Azula grinning at him. She climbed up on the bed, straddling him. When she caught his hands and pinned them to the bed beside his head, all he could do was grin.

"Then beg," she said, and kissed him.

Sokka's head was spinning a little, and not just from Azula's wild, hungry mouth dashing against his. One moment she'd been trying to kill him, the next...

 _She's a complicated woman_ , he thought to himself, a little fiercely, his hands flexing on the empty air. He wanted to touch her, to grab her and have his way with her, but the grip she had on his wrists was tight. And he liked that, too. He liked being beneath her, pinned there, seemingly helpless.

He outweighed her by several stones and they both knew he could flip her around easily--if he wanted. Not that she couldn't put up a good fight. She'd probably win, if it came down to it, but he didn't want a fight. He wanted her. He'd already had her, and he still wanted her.

He lifted his hips into her, feeling his cock twitching at the pressure of her body straddling his. She felt him lift and her hips started moving back and forth across his, rubbing indecently against the front of his pants. He groaned, his tongue flicking against hers in a mad rush of desire. He swelled, his cock straining against his laces as she ground her hips down and back across him. It was torture. Pure torture.

He couldn't say he didn't deserve it.

Azula's mouth left his with a hot pant, a little gust of air that was flavored with need. She ran her mouth, her lips, her teeth, her tongue down his neck. Her teeth sunk into his neck, pulling at the skin and making him buck in her hands. His hands twitched, his muscles flexing on the bed as he drove his feet into the mattress. He lifted into her, hard.

Azula gasped, and tightened her thighs, riding him back down onto the bed. She put her weight on his wrists and pulled back staring into his eyes.

"Don't you look delicious..." There was a purr in her voice, a possessive glint in those heated citrine eyes. It made his heart lurch. He lifted his head, trying to capture her lips, but she moved back with a lusty laugh. "I thought I told you to beg."

" _Please_ ," he rumbled, lifting his head again. She studied his face and then shot forward, biting down on his lower lip. She sucked on it, hard enough to make his eyes slam shut. When she let his lip go with a soft pop, he let his head drop back to the bed. "Spirits...you're teasing me..."

"I think you like it," she said and leaned over him. He smiled and flexed his arms.

"Every fucking second," he said and lifted up, catching her mouth before she could move away. She leaned into the kiss, pressing him back into the mattress. Her hips ground along his and he lifted again, wishing with every fiber of his being that he was inside of her. He wanted to hear those breathy moans of hers, that scream that had echoed in the hallway while he'd fucked her. He wanted to make her cum again.

Azula let go of his wrists, kissing down his throat again. Her hands fell to the buttons on his vest, undoing them one by one, even as he tangled his hands in her hair. He caught on the pin in the little flame-shaped golden crown, and pulled on it. The whole thing came cascading down in a cherry-scented wave, falling across his shoulder as she worked her tongue into his pulse point. He tossed the sharp crown over the side of the bed and then sank his fingers into her hair.

He groaned as she nipped his skin again, but he didn't do what he wanted to do, which was grab her and flip her over. He was content to let her explore him. She had his vest open, her hand running between them, over his chest, nails raking wonderfully. She latched onto his neck and sucked again and he groaned, clasping the back of her neck, his neck arching into the heat of her mouth.

" _Fuck_...." he breathed, feeling a throb go through him from groin to toes. Azula released him and licked the tingling flesh. "I'm going to have hickeys, babe."

"You deserve it, my neck is nothing but bruises," she said, as she sat up. She was biting her lip, her hair tumbled down one shoulder, and half in her face. He could see his handiwork all right, already purpling on her slender neck. Just looking at those little bruises in the shape of his mouth made him want to add a few more.

"Sorry," he said with a grin, his hands sliding to her waist. He spread his big hands there and remembered how easy it had been to hold her there against the wall, plunging to deep inside of her he'd gotten lost.

"I don't think you meant that," she said, her hips rolling back and forth against him, putting that delicious pressure on his cock again.

"Maybe not," he grunted, his hands digging into her waist, feeling the push and pull of her hips as she rocked against him. "I kind of like the idea of leaving my mark on you, Princess. I want everyone to know you're mine."

Her eyes flashed and there was a heat to her cheeks. Her hands ran down the center of his exposed chest.

"You think I'm yours? After all that?"

"Well, you do like me," he pointed out with a teasing smile.

"I'm still angry with you," she said, her hands catching on the front of his open vest.

"I'll have to make it up to you somehow."

"I think I know how," she said as she pulled on his vest, yanking him up into a sitting position. Her mouth slammed to his and found himself kissing her again, just as hungrily, just as desperately as before. He couldn't get enough of her, her taste, her touch, her scent...

Sokka wrapped his arms around her, readjusting beneath her, her dress rustling as it bunched up between them again. As sexy as it looked on her, he suddenly wanted nothing more than burn the damned thing to ashes just to get it out of his way. Azula seemed to feel the same way about his clothing, because she was pushing the vest off of his shoulders, practically yanking it off in her haste to get him shirtless.

He didn't mind in the slightest, shrugging out of it and tossing it into the void that existed beyond the warm, cherry-scented circle of her arms. His world was narrowing down to her again, like she was the sun and he was just orbiting her. That was how it had felt in that hallway...he'd had no sense of the world but her in his arms, and oh, wasn't that dangerous...

So seductively dangerous...

Azula's hands ran along his bare back and tangled with his wolf's tail. He could already tell that she loved grabbing him by it and directing him where she wanted him. A little lusty finger of memory came to him—of her grabbing him by the hair and shoving him between her thighs. How wet she'd been for him, how warm and trembling and sweet...

He groaned and his hand landed on her lower back, pushing her into the slow roll of his hips. He was desperate for something deeper. Everything ached. She rolled her hips against his again and he felt a throb go through his cock. He broke off from her mouth and let out a shuddering breath against her hungry lips.

"I want to be inside of you," he said roughly, as his hands caught on either side of the buttoned closure on the back of her dress. He yanked on back of the dress, hard, and buttons popped and pinged off into the darkness with a distant clatter. The fabric ripped under his fingers, as Azula gasped and then laughed.

Her breathless laugh turned to a fierce purr of approval when his hands landed on the bodice.

"Yes, rip it off of me! _Do it!_ " she said in a tight rush, leaning back, her tongue against her lips. The arousal in her eyes only spurned him on. He ripped her bodice down the middle, the fabric giving beneath his frantic hands, spilling her bare breasts against his chest. He let go of the ripped fabric and it fell to her waist in a frayed mess of red fabric and cloth of gold.

He had his mouth on her breasts in a flash, pushing his face in between the firm slopes, landing hot, rough kisses to her creamy skin. Azula laughed again, her chest heaving against his face, her hands tight in his hair, spreading on the back of his neck. Her nails pricked his skin, sinking into the scratches she'd already put there.

"You _savage._.."

"Savage, am I?" Sokka growled against her breasts and wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her against him and twist in place on the bed. She landed beside him with a bounce, her hair spread across the maroon duvet. He flipped to his knees and grasped her, pulling her toward him with a rough jerk that had her gasping, her skirt riding up along her hips. He pushed her knees apart and bent over her.

"Yes...." Azula breathed when his mouth landed the inside of her knee. He kissed up her thigh, pulling at the soft muscle, peppering little bites here and there. She squirmed, pulling the skirt up to expose her pussy. She wasn't wearing any panties. He vaguely recalled her ripping them off in the hallway when he was eating her out. Her pussy was flushed red from their earlier lovemaking, swollen, still wet for him and opened like the most beautiful flower he'd ever seen. Her clit was engorged and cherry red.

Desire shot through him like a bolt of lightning. He knew how sensitive that little bud must be...

He glanced up at her and saw her watching him with her heart in her eyes, desire in the wild gallop of her breath. Seeing his intent, she pressed her thighs together a little, but he opened them again, pushing at her inner thighs with his thumbs. Panting, his hand shaking a little, he slowly ran his left thumb up between the soft, dripping warmth of her pussy, pushing into her cunt and then withdrawing. Azula took hitched in a little breath and her hips worked away from him, but he pulled her back with a tug.

He sank two fingers into her and pressed upward, making her gasp and writhe immediately. Her cunt clamped on his fingers and he felt a pulse go through her. Her arms collapsed her head pushing back into the bed. He pressed harder, fitting his body in between her legs. She grasped his wrist with both hands, but he used his free hand to grasp both of her wrists. He pulled her arms up over her head, and pinned her there, braced on his elbow.

"Sokka..." Her eyes fluttered closed and then opened, fixing him in a hazy, pleasure-laced gaze that only spurned him on. Her body clamped on his fingers in little waves, little upward jerks of her hips.

 

She could have thrown him off, but she didn't. Her fingers curled into her palms as he held pinned her, rubbing against the soft, spongy mound deep within her. He looked down into her eyes, watching as her mouth opened on a silent, breathless cry. Her hips tightened, pulsing into the deep pressure of his fingers inside of her cunt. She squirmed in his grip, her knees drawing up.

She wasn't breathing. He'd noticed she tended to stop entirely when she was about to come, and he found it incredibly arousing. He watched her, feeling her body tightening...waiting...

" _Breathe_ ," he whispered, and it was a command. Azula came with a desperate pull of air, her body arching off the bed, her pussy clamping on his fingers with a hard, pumping spasm. She pulled in great lungfuls of air as she tried to squirm away from him on instinct. He didn't let her, lowering himself down to his elbow and kissing the desperate pants from her lips. He let her come down slowly, kissing her deep and hard.

Slowly, he eased his fingers out of her, her soft, warm juices pooling on the covers beneath them. He pulled back and stroked her hair with the hand propping him up. Azula's eyes were hazy, her cheeks red, a splotchy flush going down her chest. He pulled his hand out between them and put his wet fingers to her lips, tracing them, painting them with her own warm nectar. Her tongue darted out, sliding along his fingers, suckling them into her mouth. She caught his wrist and his gaze.

His stomach clenched, watching as she lifted her head off of the bed, her tongue and lips sliding along his fingers, sucking deeply at them. When she pulled off of him, her pink tongue slowly ran along her lips. His cock twitched.

"See how good you taste?" he said and then kissed her, gently. She curled her fingers around his and lifted into his kiss, feathering her lips against his. When he released her wrists, she cupped his face, her thighs clamping on his hips, pressing him in between her shaking thighs. He pulled back and their gazes met with a hot burst of shared desire.

"Fuck me," she whispered, her thumb against his lower lip. It was a command, a plea, a promise.

Sokka smiled a little and then kissed the tip of her nose. "But I don't want to fuck you, Azula...I want to make love to you."

Azula's eyes softened. She lifted up to kiss him, rough and hungry. She broke the kiss, her mouth against his, noses bumping, lips catching. Her breath was warm and sweet.

"I'm yours," Azula whispered against his lips, sending a hot throb right through Sokka's heart. There was something... _soft_ in the way she said it, as if she meant it, in every way that counted. He kissed her again, unable to resist the lure and heat of her tart mouth. Her fingers stroked the back of his neck, with gentle caresses that raised goosebumps on his shoulders and down his spine. Her hands followed the tingling rush, pushing into the muscles of his back, grasping at him, stroking him.

She pushed her hips up into him in that needy way of hers, and he immediately broke the kiss. She made a noise as he sat back on his knees, taking in the intoxicating sight of her spread out before him in her ruined dress. She drew in her knees and he caught her left leg, kissing her knee and then catching hold of her ankle. He pulled the pointed gold slipper off of her foot and tossed it aside, then did the same to her other foot.

He kept hold of her foot and glance down at her. Her eyes narrowed a little, and when he sucked her toes into his mouth, she laughed and wriggled beneath him, yanking her foot out of his grasp. "That's disgusting!"

"Not from where I'm sitting," he said with a flash of a grin, grasping her legs and tugging her down the bed a little. He rucked up her dress even further as he trailed his hands up her legs, over her waist and over her breasts. She watched him with hooded eyes, still grinning as she bit down on the joint of her curled index finger. His hands caught on the front of her ripped bodice. Just as she'd yanked him up by his vest, he tugged her up, scooping one hand up behind her as he did, his hand splaying on her back.

She laughed again, that crisp sound that was like golden bells sounding in his ears, as she settled on his thighs, her hands clasping the back of his neck again. "What exactly are you doing?"

"I have got to get this fucking dress off of you already," he said, plucking at the bunched up fabric of the skirt between them. He studied the thing for second; it was loose around her waist now, thanks to his enthusiasm. "Lift your arms."

"So bossy," she admonished, but her face was glowing as she raised her arms over her head. Sokka got his hands up under the skirt and with a gentle tug he had it up her waist, over her breasts, her head and then her arms. He tossed the whole thing aside with a careless gesture and turned back to face her. Her dark hair was tangled around her shoulders, one lock hanging into her eyes.

As she dropped her arms, he reached up and pushed it out of her face. She caught his hand, turning it to press a kiss in the center of his palm.

His gaze flicked down her body and back up to her face, his other hand stroking her back. "You are so naked right now."

"It's about time. Most men would have had me naked hours ago," she said, leaning close and biting down on his ear. Those hot bolts of lightning shot through him as she worked his ear with her teeth, and then sucked on it, hard.

"Most men don't know how to take their time and enjoy the best fucking meal of their lives," he rumbled as his eyes closed. He clamped down on his lip, moaning, pulling her even closer until she was straddling his lap again, the heat of her pressing right against his cock, her legs wrapping around his waist. She released his ear and rubbed her hips back and forth across him.

"Now you're comparing me to food?"

"Well, I did eat--" he started, but she put one hand on his face and shoved him backward. He landed with a laugh, his legs unfolding beneath him. His head hung off of the foot of the bed as Azula's mouth landed on his chest. She trailed little kisses across his pecks, her bottom teeth grazing his skin. His hips lifted into her, but she held him down with her thighs. Her hands smoothed down his ribs, spreading, gliding over his muscles. Sokka let his head hang, eyes closed as he let one hand slip into her hair.

Her nipping mouth moved lower, and she shifted down his legs, pushing his thighs apart. He felt her breasts against his erection, dragging heavily as her tongue ran in little circles across his abs. She let out one of those moans he realized he was beginning to get addicted to, and then cupped her hands around the obvious bulge between them. Her fingers squeezed him, shaping him through his pants.

"Azula..." he said, lifting his head, a throb of pain going through his neck. He sat up on his elbows, watching as she lifted her head from his stomach. There was a glint in her golden eyes, or fire and greed and desire. He watched as she grabbed the hastily tied knot on the front of his breeches and yanked it loose. She pushed open his pants, and then drew out his cock, her fingers encircling him. She stroked him lazily, rolling his foreskin up and down his head as he hardened even more.

Pre-cum beaded at the tip, rolling down over her fingers. She darted forward and licked at it, her tongue sweeping across the blunt tip and then teasing into the slit. He groaned, his hips lifting into the warmth of her tongue. She pulled back, though, licking her lips, her hand slowly working him.

"Now _that_ is a meal," she said and he laughed, shaking is head.

"Fit for a princess?"

Her eyebrow lifted and he saw heat flush her cheeks again. She tilted her head to the side, and her eyes raked his cock appraisingly. Her lips pursed. "Hmm....well, I wouldn't say it _fit_ , but you certainly did your best. Bravo."

Sokka put his hands over face, laughter shaking out of him, his head falling back over the edge of the bed. "Was that a compliment?"

"Hmmph, well at least now I know why you're so cocky all the damned time."

"I'm not cocky," he said, lifting his head again. He got his elbows beneath him and looked down at her as she stroked him.

"I beg to differ."

"Oh, now _you're_ begging. Careful, I think I like that," he said, his voice pitched low and teasing. She rolled her eyes, but he could see amusement in her eyes, and the smile she was fighting crinkled the corners of her eyes.

"I think I know what you like," she said and pushed her mouth down on him. He sucked in a breath through his teeth, watching as she took him deep in her warm mouth. Her tongue ran along the underside of his shaft, pressing into veins and along the rim of his head. The gentle suction was enough to make his hands tighten on the duvet. His head tipped back.

"No, you're wrong... I don't like that, _I love it,_ " he said tightly as she hummed in her throat and worked her sheathed lips up and down, shaping him with a steady pressure that he knew he couldn't withstand long. Not after fucking her in the hallway like he had. He lifted into the heat of her mouth with little pulses of his hips, groaning as Azula's hand followed her mouth.

He closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the soft, wet sounds of her sucking his cock filling the still air of his scorched guest room. He could feel a hard, heavy pulse go through him, his muscles tensing. He groaned and mumbled her name, intent on stopping her before he came in her mouth again, but she pulled off of him with a gasp. He opened his eyes and saw her, open mouthed, red-faced, her eyes shiny in the lantern lights. Saliva was stringing from her lips to his cock and running down her chin.

"Fuck," he breathed, his breath tight, watching with burning eyes as she licked her lips and then pressed a sloppy, hungry kiss to the tip of his cock. He twitched in her fingers and she rolled out her tongue, sliding it along his cock and then against the rim of his head. "Oh, spirits, I don't want you to stop, but I'm... _Fuck,_ I don't know how much more I can take."

She smiled, sharp and hungry, and he watched as her eyes flicked to his face, and then back to his cock. She lifted one elegantly manicured finger and pressed it to the head of his cock, teasing the slit gently. He hissed and bucked against her finger.

"That close, huh?"

"Yes," he said through his teeth. "I just...need a moment..."

"Poor Sokka..." Azula said, sitting back, wiping at her chin. Her lower lip poked out. "And I was having so much fun, too."

She got off of the bed and he started, swinging around completely on the foot of the bed and darting out a hand. He caught her by the wrist and she laughed as he tugged her back to the bed.

"Whoa! Don't go--!" he said as his arms wrapped around her waist and then slid down to cup her ass. Her hands cupped his face as he rested his chin on her taunt belly, staring up at her with his heart in his eyes. "Please stay."

"You're so easy," she purred and bent down, sliding a lusty little kiss across his lips. When she pulled back, she put her finger on his lips and said, "Take off your pants, Sokka."

"Gladly," he said, as she stepped away from him, and started toward the bathing room. "Uh...where are you going?"

"To get some water," she said, and the look she raked him with was scathing. "Someone made me scream intolerably loud earlier, and I'm dying of thirst."

"Believe me, I know how thirsty you are," he shot at her. She paused at the bathing room door and looked over her shoulder at him. His eyebrow arched a little, and he saw the grin she smothered. Then she disappeared into the bathing room and he heard the taps go. He pulled off his boots and kicked them away, then stood and shimmied out of his pants with an eagerness he hadn't felt since he'd been a horny teenager anxious for his first time.

When she came back, he was sitting at the edge of the bed, waiting for her. She had a glass of water in her hand. She seemed entirely unshy about her nakedness, but then again, Azula had never lacked for confidence. She had no reason to. Every delicious inch of her looked like it had been carved out of marble. She was gorgeous, intimidating, and incredibly, devastatingly sexy.

And, he was starting to find, she had teasing sense of humor in the bedroom, something he hadn't reckoned on. He liked it. More than liked it.

He let his eyes wander her body, unabashedly staring, his eyes lingering on her breasts, her hips, the dark triangle of hair at her thighs. She was staring at him too, as she walked toward him. When she held out the glass of water, he took it, and down a grateful gulp, realizing how dry his mouth was. Azula stepped close and he lifted his other hand, running his fingers up the backs of her thighs, over her ass and lower back. She took the glass of water back from him as he tilted his head back, just watching her, caressing her, enjoying her.

She drained the water, and he took the glass from her, setting it down on the floor beside his foot. When he wrapped his arm back around her, she was watching him. Her dark lashes lowered over her eyes for a moment, a coquettish look that intrigued him. When she fixed him in her gaze, he saw that soft look was back, that yearning expression that did things to him.

"What?" she said, nudging his shoulder with her finger. "You're staring."

"I don't think you mind."

She colored a little. "No... I... I like the way you look at me."

"How do I look at you?"

"I don't know...whenever you look at me there's this...heat in your eyes. It reminds me of my firebending. I like seeing that look in your eyes. I like..." she started, but then stopped herself.

"Like what?" he prompted softly, rubbing circles on her skin. He put his chin back on her stomach and watched a war being waged in those turbulent eyes of hers. "Tell me."

She met his eyes again. "I like being wanted by you, Sokka."

"The feeling is mutual," he said as he pulled a slow smile and wrapped his arms around her, tightly. He pressed his face against her stomach, into the soft muscle of her abdomen, landing heavy, loud kisses along her skin. She stroked the back of his neck. He felt incredibly content in that moment. "And to think I almost ruined this."

Her stroking hand stopped. "Oh, you just had to bring that up."

"Still mad?"

"I don't know, I'm not sure you've made it up to me yet."

"Just tell me what I can do to make it all better, Princess. I only want to please you," he said, dashing a toothy grin at her. She bent and kissed him, and it was searing and heated. When she pulled back he could see that bright glint in her eyes.

"I think I should put that mouth of yours to work before it gets you into trouble again. I think I may have to sit on it to keep you from talking," she said, and then pulled away. She surveyed him, nose to cock, and back again and then squared her shoulders. "Lay back on the bed."

"Your throne awaits," Sokka said and eagerly scooted back on the bed until his legs were no longer over the side. When Azula climbed up after him and straddled his face, he could only grin.

This was turning into the best night of his life.

Sokka licked his lips as Azula straddled his head, lowering herself down against his face.

“Fuck, I'm the luckiest man alive,” he mumbled, sliding one arm up her thigh to her hip, the other between her legs. She jumped and let out a little whimper when his thumb slid along her swollen, slick flesh, parting her. He felt her hand in his hair, and wrapping around his wolf's tail in that way that she liked.

Grinning, he relaxed back into the bed, and tugged her down until her juicy cunt met his lips. His tongue darted out, swirling around, gathering moisture.

“Yes...”

That was all the encouragement he needed, spreading her open with his fingers and teasing his way up to the glistening red cherry of her clit. It jumped and quivered when the tip of his tongue wiggled thickly across it and she let out another gasping whimper.

He did it again, and enjoyed the way she pumped her hips back and forth, driving her pussy against the flat of his tongue, and pressing into the gentle invasion of his thumb. She mumbled his name and he felt her thighs tighten on either side of his face.

He experimented, driving his tongue into her clit as it tried to retreat, drawing it out again until it was hard and quivering, then drawing it between his lips and apply a gentle suction that drove her completely mad.

She cried out, that same scream from the hallway, when he'd made her lose control. He let out a groan and loudly suckled on her clit again, his tongue flicking across it again and again, back and forth. The steady suction and repetition had her writhing against his face, her hand in his hair tight and tangled.

Her hips pumped back and forth in a frantic rhythm, his thumb sinking deeper into her warm wetness. She let out a heady gasp and then her breath kept catching in little pants. He loved those little gasps as she tried and failed to draw in air. It only spurred him on.

He knew she was close when she stopped breathing entirely...and he released her clit, letting it rest against his lips, breathing on it.

“Don't stop,” Azula said, her voice half a sob. He grinned and turned his head, kissing her inner thigh as he pulled his thumb out of her. She made a bratty little sound of protest and pushed herself against his face, sliding back and forth to ease the terrible ache in her. “Sokka, fuck...don't tease me...”

His hands scooped up under her ass and he moved her back just enough to look up into her eyes, and to position her dripping opening against his mouth.

“Azula, I want you to play with yourself. Make yourself cum for me.”

Her eyebrow lifted and she turned hazy eyes on him. “Sokka...”

“I want you to come on my face while I fuck you with my tongue,” he said without breaking eye contact.

Something in her eyes went wild with desire at that, and he thought, for a moment, that he saw actual fire roll along the tongue she swept against her teeth.

“Oh, you are _nasty_ ,” she said with a groan. Never the less, her hand left his hair, sliding flatly along her breasts, her stomach, and then against her clit. She let out a breath, body clenching, muscles spasming. Her head went back as she bit down on her lip. She slid her fingers against her clit, working in soft circles. Sokka tilted her hips a little, and then lifted his head off of the bed and probed her hot cunt with his tongue.

She let out a little moan of pleasure at the sensation and her hips twitched back and forth against his mouth as he licked in and out of her. Her taste flooded his tongue. It was just as heady as before, sweet and musky and all Azula. He groaned, freeing one hand and grasping his cock.

He pumped himself slowly, licking in and out of her, his tongue plunging, pressing, while her fingers circled her clit. Her hips drove into his tongue with each circle of her fingers.

Her gasps became frantic, her fingers circling faster. She bent forward, bracing herself on the bed with her other hand, and he watched her face contort, mouth open. Those hot little sips of air started and he knew she was his.

She came with a bow of her back and another one of those breathy screams, her head driving down into the bed as she all but collapsed on him. Hot, honey-thick wetness coated his tongue as he lapped at her. She was shaking, shivering in place, fucking his head into the bed with a hard bang that slammed his nose into her pelvic bone.

He winced, but rode it out, feeling her sinking even farther into the bed. Her fingers fell away from her clit, and he dragged his aching tongue out of her and nudged it.

She jolted against him like he'd shot lightning through her.

“No...no, I can't...” Azula whimpered and squirmed away from him, sprawling on her stomach. She was heaving, her hair draped over her face as she pressed it into the bed. Sokka sat up, wiping at his chin as he turned to face her.

“Too much?”

“Fuck you,” she snarled into the mattress. The grin on his mouth was obscene. His head tilted as his eyes raked across her ass. She didn't move when he got onto his knees and straddled her legs. She was pressed her thighs together as he peppered little kisses up the backs of her knees, her thighs and then, gently, across her ass. “What are you doing?”

“Exploiting a very tempting target,” he said, and then bit down on her left cheek. She jolted, ramming her ass back up into his nose. He let go, backing off, his eyes watering a little. “Ow.”

“You deserve it,” she said, flipping her hair out of her eyes as she turned her head to stare at him over her shoulder. “I'm going to be sore for days.”

“Just days? I was aiming for weeks,” he said and lowered his mouth back to her flesh. He nibbled at her, letting his mouth wander where it would, tasting her skin, running his tongue up her spine, and then back. She seemed content to let him explore, or maybe she was too exhausted to move.

When he moved up to her shoulders, gathering her skin in gentle little sucking bites, she mumbled dreamily, “I fucking love your mouth.”

A grin curled his lips. “You do?”

“Mmm...when you're not using it to aggravate me.”

He nuzzled her ear. “You like it when I aggravate you.”

“I do not.”

“Come on, Azula...who else has the balls to go toe to toe with you? You like fighting with me because I fight back.”

She sat up and half turned to face him. “You think so?”

“I know so.”

“It's lucky for you most of our fights are verbal, then, because I would destroy you on a battlefield.”

“I'll have you know that at least eighty percent of the weirdest boners I've ever had have been based on that knowledge alone,” he said, knocking another one of those golden laughs out of her. He glowed in the warmth of it.

“The other twenty percent?”

“Well-organized libraries. Hard as a rock every time. No idea why.” She collapsed onto her side, laughing, one hand over her eyes. Sokka watched her, feeling that hard pang in his heart again. “Do you know how sexy your laugh is?”

“I just sat on your face and you think my _laugh_ is sexy?” she said, angling a skeptical look at him.

“Absolutely,” he replied and bent, landing a kiss between her eyebrows. “I don't think I've heard you laugh much. I wasn't even sure you had a sense of humor in there.”

“Well, I'm full of surprises.”

“That you are, Azula,” he said seriously, wonderingly, pushing her hair out of her eyes. “That you are.”

She smiled then, and that pang in his chest became a sharp stab that reverberated throughout his body. Unable to stop himself, he bent and kissed her, hard.

She didn't seem to mind, her head coming up off of the bed, one hand on the back of his neck. His tongue pushed into her mouth, swirling against hers with a warm glide that made both of them moan.

He wasn't surprised when she pulled back, and rolled over beneath him, drawing up her legs and wrapping them around his waist. She pulled him in close and he hitched in a breath when his stiff cock slid along her warm, wet seam, the blunt tip pushing against her clit.

He readjusted beneath her, propping himself up on his elbow, his other hand slowly trailing along her sides and then down her thigh. He grasped her beneath the knee, pulling her a little closer. The movement brought his cock against her opening and he pressed in, just enough to make her breathe in in that breathy way that told him everything.

Her hands spread on his sides, his lower back, stroking slowly, raising goosebumps. That wild look was back in her eyes, something like greed there too. He slanted a soft kiss against her lips, and it was slow and wonderful, and _everything._

When he pulled back, he met her gaze searchingly.

“Slowly,” she whispered, and he kissed her again, and then slowly, gently, entered her. Azula broke the kiss, her head falling back, bruised neck exposed as she dug her head into the bed. “Oh, yes...”

He took her with a slow roll of his hips, easing his cock into her warm depths with a groan, his mouth alighting on her neck. He teased her flesh with his teeth as her nails dug little shapes into the flexing muscles of his back.

He rocked forward, into her, filling her with that steady, slow glide that sank pleasure into his very soul. With every rock of his hips, he brought her lower body in close with the hand beneath her knee. She tilted her head back down and captured his mouth.

They breathed against one another's open lips between searing kisses, both of them panting, hitching in little gasps of shared pleasure. One of her hands spread on the back of his neck, possessively.

 _I want to be hers,_ he thought, suddenly, sharply and with another bone-deep pang that throbbed like a phantom heartbeat inside of him. He deepened his kiss and his hips plunged against hers a little harder, taking her to the hilt.

Azula cried out and lifted into him at that. Her head went back for a moment, her eyes rolling up in her head. He pulled back and thrust into her again and she grabbed desperately at his ass. The bite of her nails acted on him like a whip and he took her again, harder than before, pressing and plunging with a rough snap of his hips that jounced her on the bed beneath him.

Nonsense and little fragments of sentences filled with moans and broken words spilled out of her as her head went back again, her body arching into his, taking him just as much as he was taking her.

Sweat ran down his back and the sounds of their bodies coming together were distant distractions from the pleasure he could see gathering on her face and he ignored them. His entire world narrowed down to the woman beneath him. She was all that mattered.

He slowed his hips and she moved restlessly beneath him, pushing up into his body with a desperate thrust. He let her settle back and then pulled out of her, leaving her to grasp at him, attempting to pull him back against her, into her. He stopped her, sitting back on his heels, surveying her spread out before him.

“Sokka—” she started, but he leaned over her and slammed a hot, hard kiss to her lips. He breathed against her mouth and then nuzzled her nose. He pulled back and looked into her eyes.

“I want you to ride me, Princess,” Sokka said with a little growl in his voice. Her eyes flashed and he saw the effect those words had on her: greed and pure, unadulterated lust.

“It's about time you realized who was on top here,” she said fiercely, as he scooped his arms around her.

“I've always known,” he said as he lifted her, and turned in place to settled back against the headboard. She settled into his lap, limp-limbed and covered in sweat. He pulled her close as she settled over him, his face pushing in between her breasts, kissing and nibbling as she put her mouth against his forehead. When she tipped his face up and kissed him, he could sense the smile on her lips.

“You'd better,” she said warningly as she reached between them and guided him to her opening. She hitched in a breath, and then slowly slid down his length. “Mmmm, I knew you had to be good for something.”

“We aim to please,” he said and then drew one of her nipples into his mouth. He rolled it, sucking on it hard enough to make her cry out. Her hands spread on his shoulders, pushing him back against the headboard in a slump and making him let go of her breast. He watched her readjust over him, her thighs tightening on his.

“Oh, I find you very pleasing,” she said, lifting up until only the tip of him was inside of her. Then she pushed her hips back down, rolling them slowly as her body squeezed at the entire length of him like a vise. He groaned, watching her through slitted eyes.

He put his hands on her hips, but didn't guide her, content to let her find her own rhythm. She flexed her thighs, sliding up and down his thick length with a slow, languid roll of her hips.

Her hair was tumbled over her red, sweaty face, spilling down her shoulders in wild tangles. Her head tipped back, displaying those delightful little bruises peppered across her skin. There would be no hiding them. A lazy, sharp grin crossed his lips, pleasure driving into him with every roll of her hips.

Her eyes closed and her tongue poked out between her teeth, the corners of her lips curled in a self-satisfied little smile that did things to him.

“I love watching you take my cock, Azula,” he said tightly, a little groan in his throat. Her eyes opened and fixed on him, heat blazing in the honey depths like distant lightning on a warm summer night. Her hips rolled a little faster, taking him in deeper. She bit down on her lip and grasped his hands with her own.

Their fingers laced. She braced herself against his hands and leaned back, her back arching, her hips snapping forward in short, claiming thrusts. He moaned and lifted into her, feeling her body clamping on him with every plunge of her hips. He was never going to stop loving _that._

He watched her breasts bounce with every movement, her nipples dark and red and delicious. He was never going to get tired of that either.

She thrust down on him, hard, knocking a shuddering cry from her lips. Her hair flew as her head came forward. She loosened her grip on his hands and clapped her hands onto his chest.

The smooth thrusts of her hips became a deep, rough grind. Sokka moaned as she rode him, his hands slipping to her breasts as she leaned forward over him. He cupped her breasts, his thumbs rubbing against her nipples in circles. She was taking in shallow sips of air again, and he could feel that deep, hard squeeze that told him everything.

Pleasure was digging at him, gripping him in a warm, slippery vise. Pressure started low in his groin, tingling upward. He could feel it in every inch of him.

She let out a sharp gasp and her nails raked his chest and then spread on his pecks. Her face screwed up, sweat on her skin. The muscles of her stomach were contracting in enticing little spasms as she ground on his cock.

“ _Fuck...fuck...fuck, oh fuck..._ ” The words poured out of her in a relentless, breathless tumble. His hands slipped back to her waist. One hand spread on her arching lower back, the other pressed flatly on her belly, right beneath her belly button. He pressed in hard and she jolted and squirmed back and forth in a frantic, desperate grind.

Distantly, he was aware of the bed bouncing beneath them with a loud creak, of the headboard slamming against the wall, but all that mattered was the woman in his arms, riding him into the bed. His head bounced against the wooden headboard as he gritted his teeth, his stomach tightening, pleasure building in him like a hurricane.

She stopped breathing and her hips tightened. Her mouth opened as her eyes fluttered, showing him the whites as they rolled back in her head. Her pussy clamped on him, hard, and he surged off of the headboard, wrapping his arms around her as she orgasmed.

“That's right... _take it_...so fucking amazing,” he mumbled against her cheek as she desperately dragged in lungfuls of air. She was still shuddering, a fresh wave of perspiration breaking out over her skin. He stroked her back, keeping as still as possible, but every shudder of her over-sensitive body made her whimper and cling to him. Her hand spread on the back of his neck as she turned her head and caught her lip against his.

“What are you doing to me?” she breathed in a slurry, dreamy voice. Then she kissed him, spilling little pants into his mouth as he rubbed slow circles into the slick skin of her back. She shifted forward, the movement pressing his cock deep inside of her. She turned her head, letting out another shallow cry. A full body shudder took her and she circled her hips slowly, then pulled back and glided forward again.

Their bodies stuck together, wet with sweat and the slick moisture of her body. She was teetering on the precipice of another orgasm. He could feel it in her gathering muscles, and it reverberated through his body. He'd been pushing back his own pleasure by the skin of his teeth, but his control was slipping.

“Look at me,” he said, cupping her face. Her eyes half-closed, hazy with desire. Her cheeks were red and splotchy, and her black eyeliner was starting to smear beneath her eyes. He'd never seen anything sexier, more beautiful, in his life.

“Sokka...I'm...” she started, but trailed off into an open-mouthed, shallow gasp that was more breath than sound. Her pussy clenched around his length again and he shook in her arms. That seemed to bring her back. Her eyes swept over the tightness in his jaw, and the veins standing out on his arms. “Are you going to cum?”

“M'close,” he said, and it was more of a grunt than a word. Her nails dug into his neck and that deep, lusty greed bloomed into her eyes again.

“I want it,” she breathed, and her hips worked forward against his, hard and tight. “I want you to cum inside of me, Sokka.”

Some part of his brain went absolutely insensible at that and the other half started running around, screaming, on fire with want. If there was any rationale left, it was gibbering in a corner.

He caught her lips, and she moaned, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck as he pulled her against his chest, hard. Her breasts flattened against him as he put one hand on her lower back and then lifted them both up and then forward.

They landed on the bed in a tumble, with her on her back beneath him. Her legs wrapped around his waist, keeping him inside of her when he might have slipped out. He sank down onto the bed with her and caught her hands, pinning them the bed.

His knees drove into the bed and he pumped forward, into her eager body. She arched beneath him, bringing their bodies together. He slammed into her, hard and she cried out and dug her head back into the bed.

“YES!”

His mouth landed hot and heavy on her neck and then her mouth as she caught it with her own, lifting her head off the bed. His hips slapped against hers, hard and rough. When her head fell back on the bed, he could see that breathless moan of hers starting.

Her body squeezed his, milking him, taking him close and closer to the an edge he couldn't avoid. He wanted to make her cum again...needed to...wanted to feel...

Azula's body arched hard beneath him as he pumped inside of her. A loud, rasping cry left her and she freed her hands, grasping handfuls of his flesh, sinking in her nails, her legs gasping his hips so hard he was locked deep within her.

She shivered beneath him as he put his face into her neck, mumbling in her ear again, totally lost to the sensation of the woman wrapping around him, of the pleasure breaking over him in hot waves, until he couldn't hold it back any longer.

He came inside of her with a pump of his hips, slamming home and then stilling. He cried out against her neck, every muscle tightening and tensing as he burst inside of her warm, grasping body.

“Yes...yes...” Azula shuddered, stroking the back of his neck as he slowly stilled inside of her, her body still squeezing him in little aftershocks. His eyes closed as he breathed in the scent of her, of the scent of their lovemaking.

They stayed like that for a long moment, his weight practically crushing her into the bed. She didn't seem to mind, and it was a good thing, because he didn't think he had the strength to move. Every bone in his body felt like it was made of water. He breathed slowly, feeling her relaxing beneath him, coming down her own high.

He felt himself softening inside of her though, and pressed his hands into the bed, leveraging himself up off of her. He slipped out of her with a warm gush, and she moaned a little at the sensation.

Slowly, tiredly, Sokka got his knees beneath him and sat up between her spread thighs. Azula's hands dropped lazily to the bed beside her head. She was staring at him sleepily, blinking slowly, a self-satisfied little smile on her lips.

“You look as satisfied as a cat in the cream,” he said warmly, wiping a hand down his sweaty face.

“Do I? Seems appropriate,” she purred, one hand slipped down between her legs. He watched her slip her fingers inside of her, pressing in deep. When she pulled her fingers out, he saw his cum spill out of her. She met his gaze and sucked her fingers into her mouth. She made a sound of pleasure and he saw her tongue flash.

“Now I _know_ you're trying to kill me,” he said with a soft laugh, falling to the side as a hot stab of desire going through him. He wondered at the feeling. He didn't think it was possible for him to want her even more than he already did, and yet...

“Kill you? After that? I was thinking of erecting a statue in your honor.”

Sokka grinned and rolled over onto his side to face her. He propped his head up on his hand. “A statue?”

“Yes, quite a large one,” she mused.

“Naturally,” he said as she grinned and sat up on her elbows. She leaned over and kissed him. Her lips feathered over his. He tasted himself on her tongue when it slipped against his, and he moaned. When she pulled back, he saw that that greedy light was still there, but it was softer now, and yet somehow more determined.

They stared at one another for a long moment, and something...unspoken passed between them. He couldn't quite grasp it, not through his post-orgasmic haze, but it was important, and he knew it.

Azula stroked his cheek and then landed a soft kiss between his brows that surprised him.

“Azula--” he started, reaching for her when she pulled back, but she slipped out of his arms. “What are you--?”

“I should clean up,” she said demurely, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She got to her feet and immediately grabbed for the bed. A self-conscious laugh left her as she glanced over her shoulder at him.

His eyebrow quirked. “Shaky legs?”

“Oh, someone's proud of themselves,” she shot at him with another teasing grin, and pushed away from the bed, walking toward the bathing room with her head held high. Sokka watched her disappear through the door and then collapsed onto his back on the bed.

He stared at the ceiling without really seeing it, letting his mind drift into a sex-soaked haze of contentment. He took in a deep breath. Azula's perfume filled his senses. It clung to his skin and sat in the back of his mouth, the ghost of cherry blossoms and sweet clover honey.

His hand brushed down the center of his body, sweat and other liquids slick beneath his fingers. He ran his fingertips over the scratches she'd put in his chest, each raised welt a road map of her pleasure.

He glanced at the door of the bathing room for a moment, a hard dig of want shooting through him. When he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed and took to his feet, he was chagrined to find that his knees were as watery as his mind. Grinning, he got up and walked into the bathing room.

“Knock, knock,” he said, stopping in the doorway. Azula was standing at the sink, staring into the mirror, gnawing on her swollen bottom lip. She looked up at his reflection and he saw her expression soften from a slightly worried one. He frowned. “You okay?”

“I'm sore,” she said, putting down the wet washcloth she'd been using. “And messy.”

“I take full responsibility,” he said warmly, walking toward her. She didn't move away when he wrapped his arms around her and tucked his face into her neck.

“You'd better,” she said, and he felt her hand over his as he laid it flat on her stomach. He kissed her neck and she made a soft little purr of pleasure. “My makeup is in shambles.”

“I know...you look so hot,” he whispered, looking up at their reflections in the mirror. He swayed on the spot with her, studying her face in the mirror.

“I look like I've been fucking all night,” she shot at him tartly, but her lips were curling at the corners.

“Not _all_ night... But if I had my way...” he said and raked his mouth along her neck to her ear. He met her eyes in the mirror. “I could quickly become addicted to making love to you, Azula.”

“That's the sex talking,” she said, though he could see the quickening of her breath, feel it beneath his arms. He tightened his grip on her and smiled.

“That's _me_ talking,” he said heavily and rested his chin on her shoulder again. “You're kind of incredible.”

“Yes, I know.”

He laughed and turned her around to face him. She didn't fight it, putting her arms around his neck. He looked down at her, grinning as they swayed on the spot and he felt her fingers caressing the stubble on the back of his head. His hands rested on her back, spreading, cupped her against him. Her eyes were turbulent as she looked at him, and he felt another hard pang deep in his stomach that raced to his chest.

“What's going through that head of yours, Princess?”

“I don't know,” she mumbled and then pulled on her lip with her teeth. “For once in my life, I don't know.”

“I know the feeling,” he admitted. “I think you broke my brain.”

“Oh? Was it working before?” she said with some of her old acidity and he grinned.

“Not well. I mean, I did leave you standing in a hallway like a moron,” he said and then winced as her lips twisted. “Uh...did I mention I was sorry about that?”

She stood up on tiptoe. “A few times... And eventually I may forgive you.”

He put his forehead against hers. “I guess I'll just have to keep trying then, huh?”

“Well, your groveling does please me.”

“Pretty sure all of me pleases you, Princess.”

“Oh, you _are_ smug, aren't you?” she said with heat in her voice.

“Yeah, but it turns you on,” he said roughly and kissed her. Despite everything they'd just shared, despite exhaustion clawing at him, his heart raced as he kissed her. She sank into him, boneless and warm and supple. His hands caressed her side as his tongue flicked slowly against hers. Her kiss was peppered with soft little moans and he felt shivers go down his spine at the sound of them.

His exhausted, sated body seemed to forget itself as she pressed her body against his. His cock twitched and then swelled to half-mast. He groaned as the blood rushed south, tangling his hand in her hair, angling her head to slant a deep, rough kiss across her mouth. She clung to him, lifting into him for one long, heat-filled moment.

She broke first, breathing shallowly as she turned her head.

“You are going to be a problem,” she said, her tongue sliding along her lips. She glanced down between them and then back up into his eyes. Her lips quirked at the corners. “Both of you.”

“I think you've already proven you can handle us,” he said and she rolled her eyes, but he could tell she was trying not to smile outright.

“I think you both need a cold shower.”

“Mmm,” he said, kissing her temple. “Maybe a hot bath instead?”

“Is that an invitation?”

“Absolutely,” he said and reached down, grabbing a handful of her ass. “A long soak would do those sore muscles some good. And I promise, no funny business.”

“Why don't I believe you?” she said with that soft smile that told him she was pleased about something.

“Utter lack of credibility?” he shot at her with a grin, as he walked toward the bathtub in the corner of the room. It was larger than the big copper kettles they used for bathing in the South Pole, but smaller than some of the truly indecent tubs he'd seen in the Fire Nation palace. He'd seen the one in Zuko's suite, for instance, and it was large enough to swim in. This tub was golden, with clawed dragon's feet, a curled lip and a high back. The whole thing looked like a giant slipper.

He stoppered it and turn on the taps. Steam rose as hot water filled it, curling around his face as he perched on the lip of the tub. Azula stood at the sink, scrubbing at her smeared makeup. He watched her as the tub filled, his elbows resting on his knees.

She stood on tiptoe and leaned into the sink to get closer to the mirror, rubbing the wet cloth beneath her eyes to wipe away a black smudge of kohl. There was a look of concentration on her face, and he found it adorable.

A flash of something... _wanting_ flooded him and he had a momentary vision of her in his big, light-filled apartment in Republic City, of her with a cup of tea in her hands, wearing nothing but one of his large blue shirts, with her makeup all smeared from sleep, and her hair tangled and soft. There was something seductively domestic about the vision and he couldn't stop the feeling of longing in him that it conjured.

His hands folded into his palms and he dug his nails in, feeling a lump in his throat. Maybe it was the incredible sex talking, but he didn't think so. It wasn't the first time he'd envisioned a place with her in his life, and what that might be like.

Those had been idle thoughts, something wistful and wondering, when he'd thought this thing went one way. He'd known she was attracted to him—it had been painfully obvious to him for a long while—but he'd just assumed she didn't like him.

Well, that had been his big mistake...and now... Now his world had been upended. She liked him, but how much? Enough to sleep with him, obviously, but was that all it was? What did it mean?

His leg bounced up and down as he watched her put down the washcloth. She started clawing her fingers through her hair. She was humming slightly, and the sound of her voice was a soft, golden thrum that ran warm little fingers across his senses.

He couldn't help the smile that hovered on his lips at that.

Listening to her humming as the bathtub filled behind him, sending clouds of steam billowing across the little bathing room and clinging to his damp skin, he realized he knew exactly what he wanted this thing between them to mean.

As good as the sex between them had been, that wasn't the part that was sticking in his mind. It was her. Her laughter, the tease of her, the little smiles as she lowered her walls and let him in. He'd glimpsed something there, in her, that he was sure not many people had before. He'd liked what he'd seen.

And it only made him want her more, and not just in a carnal way. He could feel it swelling in him like a balloon, expanding outward, overtaking him. He wanted to let it happen...

But what did she want?

He was still mulling that over when he turned off the taps. His hand idly swirled in the warm water as she glanced his way and smiled a little. Her head cocked to the side. “You really do like watching me, don't you?”

He shrugged. “I'm a simple man. I love beautiful naked women who could kick my ass. It's a known weakness of mine.”

She walked toward him and he automatically slipped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her stomach. She cupped his face, stroking his cheek, and then gently pulled the tie out of his hair, letting it cascade down around his ears. Her fingers carded his hair, that soft little smile on her lips again.

After a long moment, she said, “If I had any weaknesses.... Well, I don't, but _if_ I did, then perhaps it would be...men with blue eyes who make me laugh.”

“Mmm,” he intoned, frowning. “I think I know guy like that, I should hook you two up. You'd love him. Hilarious. A very caring and gentle lover. And his dick his huge.”

A laugh bubbled out of her and she rolled her eyes again. “He sounds perfect.”

“He's exactly your type.”

“Is he?”

“And you're his type, too,” he admitted and then swallowed. “You're everything he wants, Azula.”

She bit down on her lip and slowly let it slide out of her teeth. Her voice was soft, those citrine eyes even softer. “Am I?”

Sokka nodded and rubbed little circles on her back. She blinked sleepily at him, pushing a strand of hair back behind his ear. He could feel that thing in his chest again, that deep, sharp ache that filled him with a series of emotions, most of them desire. But desire for what...he wasn't sure.

“Azula, I'm—” he started, not sure what he was about to say but very sure he was about to say _something,_ but she glanced at the bathtub, drawing in a sharp breath.

“About that bath?” she interrupted brightly, lifting a hand to her mouth. Her fingers brushed her lips and then dropped, as if she'd caught herself for a moment.

“Right, yeah,” he said and unfolded himself from her arms. He made a sweeping gesture towards the tub. “After you, Princess.”

“How gallant,” she said as she lifted one foot and put it into the water. “Mmm, I like it hot.”

He grinned but refrained from commenting on that, still holding her hand as she finished climbing in, and then sat down. She scooted forward, her knees to her chest, as he climbed in behind her. The warm water enveloped him as he sat down with his legs on either side of her. Azula settled back against him and her head came back against his shoulder.

Sokka smiled as she made that little happy purr in her throat again. He felt her entire body relax against his as he put his arms around her middle.

“Comfy?” he said against her ear.

“Mmm...” she said, and he noticed that her eyes were already closed. “This is perfect. Exactly what I needed.”

“Couldn't agree more,” he said, although he wasn't sure he meant the bath. He wasn't sure that's what she meant either, but he wasn't going to press. He felt her hands on the arms he had wrapped around her. Her fingertips swirled against his skin beneath the steaming water.

They sat like that for a while, content to just let the hot water soak into their exhausted bodies. His eyes closed for a long moment and he felt the gentle pull of sleep take him for just long enough to alarm him. He snapped his eyes back open, and blinked several times in the steamy air.

“M'not careful I'm gonna fall asleep,” he said with a tired half-chuckle.

“Me too,” she said in a slurry voice. “Talk to me.”

“About what, babe?” he whispered, kissing her ear. She glanced at him and then put her head back on his shoulder, settling down against him more firmly. She drew one leg up, her tip of her knee breaching the water.

“Anything. I just like your voice.”

“You do, huh?”

“Mmm...”

His sleepy mind was slow to grasp at words, but he finally found them. “When did you start liking me?”

“When did _you_ start liking _me?_ ” she shot at him, cracking one eye open and fixing him in a sidelong stare.

“I asked you first, Princess.”

He saw heat color her cheeks and it wasn't from the water. “I don't know. A while ago, I suppose, but...”

“You didn't realize it?” he teased, lifting a hand out of the water and brushing her hair aside. He kissed her below the ear.

“I suppose I didn't. Although I've had a number of fantasies about shutting you up by sitting on your face.”

“I guess you can check that one off of the old bucket list,” he said and nibbled her ear. He saw her bruised neck flush red and splotchy at that, but there was amusement in the corner of her lips as she turned her head to meet his eyes.

“Hmm, well...I like achieving my goals.”

“My little go-getter,” he whispered against her ear. She hitched in a breath and glanced at him again. That sparkle was back in her eyes, that heat that licked him from balls to brains.

“Your turn. When did you know you liked me?”

“Two years ago.”

She blinked in surprise. “Two...two years ago? Excuse me?”

He pulled a wide grin. “Remember when you and Zuko came to Republic City for the Harmony Festival, and we had that big fight in the middle of the courtyard on Air Temple Island?”

“Yes, you were being an idiot.”

“Mmm... Debatable.”

“Is it, though?” she shot at him, her nose wrinkling. He stopped, thought a moment and then shrugged.

“Fair enough,” he said, with a tilt of his head and a brief smile. “The point is, you were standing there in the sunlight and it just hit me how beautiful you are. I mean, I always thought so, but... You were so mad I thought you were going to light me on fire, but then I started thinking of how cute you were, and then I thought, _you know, if I kissed her she'd stop yelling at me._ And then I thought, _naww, naww if I tried_ _that_ _she'd definitely light me on fire._ So I didn't. But after that... Well, let's just say I've been making a lot of thin excuses to come visit my old pal Zuko.”

Her brow lifted. “So you've been flirting with me the whole time?”

“Yeah. Thanks for noticing.”

She huffed a little. “I noticed, I just...didn't notice. I thought you were being intentionally annoying.”

“I was. I thought you were starting fights on purpose.”

“I was. You were right. Everyone else is terrified of me. Normally I like that, but... You're not afraid of me.”

He snorted out a laugh. “I'm terrified of you.”

“You are not.”

“Am so. When I walked into the suite earlier, I knew if you really wanted you'd light me on fire.”

“I... I don't want to light you on fire,” she said softly, and something about the way she said it made his heart squeeze tight. He put one finger beneath her chin, turning her head so that he could stare into her eyes.

“Too late,” he whispered and then feathered a soft kiss against her willing lips. She moaned, and with a slosh, turned around in the tub to face him. He pulled her into his arms, her legs sliding around his, and then she was pressing herself against his chest, her mouth on his...warm and sweet and needy...

Her tongue swirled against his. His hands were in her hair, sliding along her shoulders, holding her against him. It seemed to go on for hours, or maybe days. He wasn't sure. Everything was a blissful haze of warm water, the scent of her skin, the taste of her in his mouth like sweet ripe cherries.

When they finally broke apart, she was panting and so was he. She let out a shuddering breath and put her forehead against his. Her fingers walked along the scratches on his chest as she licked her lips.

“Sokka...” she started and then stopped. Her eyes met his and then flicked away. “It's late, I should probably...”

“Stay the night with me,” he said, cupping his hand around her neck, his thumbs brushing her cheeks. “Please.”

“Are you trying to make up for leaving me earlier?”

“No,” he said truthfully. “I just want to wake up with you in my arms.”

He saw something bloom in her eyes, that need he'd glimpsed in the bedroom, and he felt it echo through his body. She searched his face, her lips parted.

“Sokka...I...” Azula started and then took another shivery breath. He already knew what her answer would be, but when her gaze softened and she fixed him in the heat of her eyes, something in him crowed with triumph. “Yes. Yes, I'll stay.”

He smiled wide and searched her face. Then he kissed her again, and she sank into his arms. When they finally broke apart, the water was cold, and Sokka knew one thing, and one thing only.

He was falling for her.

 


	3. Part III

* * *

 

 ****Gentle fingers caressed her back as she floated in a warm, dreamless sleep that seemed to sink over her like lapping waves. She was vaguely aware of a heartbeat beneath her ear, its steady _ga-gong_ keeping time with her own, but that was all that could break through the drift of her consciousness. She was wrapped in a bliss she couldn't escape from, and she was content to let it take her.

By the time the veil between her exhausted mind and the world became thin enough to allow in reality, morning had come and was mostly gone. She slowly cracked an eye open and winced away from the warm yellow light streaming in through a poorly closed curtain.

“Mmmmph,” Azula groaned, screwing her eyes shut and shoving her face into the warm muscle beneath her cheek. A tantalizingly familiar scent wreathed around her; it was the scent of sex and something mouthwatering and masculine. She breathed in and then her head shot up.

Sokka was laid out beneath her on the bed, one arm flung over his head, the other wrapped around her. His mouth was open slightly, and he was snoring lightly, a little rusty noise that made her frown.

She was usually a light sleeper. She should have heard him snore at some point. How exhausted had she been?

Her mind flashed back to the night before, bringing with it a slew of lurid details that made her skin immediately flush a strawberry red. She bit down on her swollen bottom lip. He had fucked her against the wall. And then he'd left her standing there like an idiot, so she'd gone after him, and he'd... They had...

He'd made love to her. It had been hot and filthy at times, but there had been something about it that had been more than just sex. More than just a meaningless fuck. Hadn't he said he'd wanted to make love to her? She'd thought for a moment last night that he was just saying empty words, things she wanted to hear, but then...

Then he'd done those things. He'd made love to her. And the way he'd looked at her... They way he'd touched her...

Azula swallowed and glanced down at his chest again. There was a fading red scratch there, several in fact. Evidence of her enthusiasm last night. She'd been a mindless slave to pleasure, and she knew it, but it hadn't just been the sex, it had been him. Everything about him was like a drug. He made her forget herself. He made her...want.

But what did she want, exactly?

She'd already admitted that she liked him, something she was sure before last night that she'd take to her grave rather than admit. But she had admitted it. She'd wanted him to know. And she'd wanted him to feel the same way. When she'd thought he hadn't, it had hurt. It had hurt somewhere dark and deep inside of her, a place she hadn't realized _could_ be hurt.

But he did like her back. He'd said so. And hadn't he been trying to prove that last night? Hadn't he looked at her with those fire-blue eyes naked and open and wanting? Hadn't he practically begged her to stay the night with him?

But what did it all mean? What exactly was she feeling right now? What was _he_ feeling?

Sighing, Azula put her head back onto his chest and listened to his little sawing snores, feeling the beat of his heart beneath her ear. Her fingers ran lightly over the scratches she'd left on him.

What would he say if she told him she'd never spent the night with any of her other lovers? She always kicked them out of her bed and sent them on their way when she was done with them. She'd never been with anyone she wanted to wake up next to.

Except him.

“Why are you so different?” she whispered, frowning, but there were answers to be had.

Her hand lazily smoothed over his stomach and chest and she sighed a little, content to touch him in an unguarded moment. Last night she had been too vulnerable and she knew it. She'd let him in, let him see her...but what had he seen? And did it matter?

She ran her hand lightly along his stomach, and then slipped her fingers beneath the covers slung across his hips. He'd put on a pair of loose blue sleep pants before they'd crawled into bed together. She was wearing the shirt that went with it, a royal blue vest that had enveloped her. He was so big and muscular...she actually dainty in his arms, which was not a feeling she was used to.

She liked it.

A lot.

She carded her fingers through the hair wending down his lower belly, and then glided over the front of his pants. Sokka huffed in his sleep and then shuffled closer to her. The hand resting on her shoulder moved up to tangle in her hair. His cock twitched and swelled as she slowly stroked him through his pants. He groaned in his throat, but she didn't think he was awake yet.

She wondered if this was okay, but then thought of how she'd fucked his face the night before and grinned a little. She was pretty sure a little rub and tug wasn't out of the question. Not after that.

Azula turned her head and landed a soft kiss to his chest. The hand in her hair tightened a little, but a glance up at him confirmed that he was still slightly snoring, his mouth a little open. At least he wasn't drooling.

Not that hadn't earned his rest. Just moving made her realize what a workout he'd given her last night. She shifted in the bed, sitting up and slinging her leg over his. His hand fell away from her hair as she pushed the blankets down. Doing so made her ache between the legs and she reached down, running her fingers through the soft skin.

Sore, oh yes, but it was sweet ache. She'd earned that ache. He'd fucked her last night as much as he'd made love to her. She'd never orgasmed like that before, certainly not one right after the other like he was some kind of sex magician. Most of her lovers could barely get her off.

Not unless she was thinking about...

Well, she wasn't about to tell him that she'd been imagining fucking him for years. She was pretty sure she'd have to smack the smug look off of his face if she did.

That didn't make it any less true, however. Fantasies of her brother's big, smartassed, gorgeous Water Tribe friend had become her favorite outlet when she needed to get off, and try as she might, she hadn't been able to stop herself from imagining what it might be like to fuck him.

 _I guess I found out last night,_ she thought to herself and pulled a wry grin. She might have been annoyed that it had been everything she'd dreamed about and more...if hadn't been so damned _good._

She glanced at Sokka's sleeping face as she reached into his pants and gently pulled out his cock. He twitched and his hips pushed upward a little, but he didn't wake up. His cock was at half-mast and already impressively thick. No wonder her legs had been shaking last night.

She licked her palm and then wrapped it around his cock, stroking it with a lazy squeezing pump. She remembered how he'd felt inside of her last night, how he'd filled her up and bottomed out. He'd pushed her beyond what she'd thought she could take, and she knew it. It excited her.

She slowly rolled his foreskin back and forth, squeezing, watching liquid beading at the flushed tip. She smeared it with her thumb and stroked a little harder, watching as he swelled to fill her hand.

Sokka groaned, and lifted his hips into her hand again, harder this time. Her eyes flicked up and met a pair of sleepy, fire-blue eyes. One brow went up as he looked from her face to his cock and back again.

“Hey there, little troublemaker,” he rumbled in a voice deep from sleep. His lips curled at the corners and she felt heat flood through her immediately. She loved it when he looked at her like that. A part of her thought for sure she should be annoyed by it, but she wasn't. Not even a little bit. “So I didn't imagine last night, huh?”

“Wish you had?” she asked, and tried to not let her heart show in her eyes.

His grin was slow and sexy. “Not on your life. So...having fun?”

“Quite a bit,” she said, stroking him from balls to tip. “Sleep well?”

“Like a man who had the best sex of his life last night, with the most beautiful woman in the world.”

A part of her purred in satisfaction at that, but she snapped fiercely, “Who is she? I'll kill her!”

“Is it weird that I find the idea of you fighting for me incredibly sexy?” he said softly, wonderingly. She glowed at the heat in his voice, the awe. Her hand sped up a little.

“I'm jerking you off right now and you're fantasizing that I'm doing something violent instead? Yes, that is a little weird,” she said with a grin. Sokka huffed out a soft, rumbling noise and lifted his hips into her hand while he pillowed his hands behind his head.

“Don't kink-shame me,” he said, sticking out his bottom lip in a pout. “It's too early in the morning for shame.”

“Would you like me to stop?”

“No, I want you to suck my cock,” he said, centering those heated eyes on her, the smile leaving his lips. The heat in his eyes was all lust, flavored with sleep and a deep, aching desire that she could feel echoing through her body like a ricocheting arrow.

“You do, huh?” she said as she put both hands around him and pumped him. His hips shifted forward with each roll of her hands up and down his shaft. “Tell me exactly what you want, Sokka.”

“I want you. Azula, I just want you.”

She let out a breathy noise, feeling that deep ache between her legs as it began to throb. Something about the naked emotion in his eyes, and snaking through the deep growl of his voice made her heartbeat speed up until it was crashing against her chest.

Just the way he looked at her made her wet.

“I like the way you want me,” she said in a small voice, and she hated her own inexplicable temerity. What was it about the way he looked at her—the way he made her feel—that made her terrified to voice the things she was thinking, feeling?

Where he was concerned, she was a mess, and she knew it. Instead of dealing with her emotions, she pushed them aside, and focused on just enjoying herself.

Whatever this was between them, if it was anything at all, she was going to have a good time with it. She'd deal with her stupid, inconvenient feelings later. Much later. Maybe never.

“I think maybe you more than like it, babe,” he said and she felt that flash of heat in her middle again. She'd never had a man ever call her anything but 'Azula', 'Princess', or 'your highness.' Even the small handful of lovers she'd taken over the years had never dared to get too familiar with her. She didn't think it was strictly out of respect; most of them had been terrified of her, as much as they'd been attracted to her.

Certainly none of them had ever had the nerve to tell her to suck his cock. Sokka wasn't intimidated by her, no matter what he said, and she found that incredibly arousing. Everything about him was delicious and intoxicating.

 _Spirits,_ _I think_ _I'm still high on dick_ , she chided herself, but it was with a small smile.

“Don't get cocky,” she shot at him, hiding that smile, even though he'd seen it. Her hand rolled up and down his shaft, squeezing, his pre-cum glistening as it slicked her palm.

“Too late, babe,” he said with a laugh and then crooked his finger at her. “Come on, you do me and I'll do you.”

Her eyebrow lifted. “Your jaw isn't sore from last night?”

“Nope,” he said, shooting her a wide grin. “I think you half drowned me, though.”

“You're still breathing.” Something darkened in those eyes of his and he nibbled on his gorgeous bottom lip, his eyes flicking from hers down to her bruised neck and back. “What's that look about? You look like you had a very filthy idea.”

Whatever it was, she had a feeling she was going to like it. His ideas usually ended in her cumming so hard she screamed.

“Oh, you'll see...but first I want you to sit that beautiful pussy on my face while you suck my cock.”

She bit down on her lip and their gazes met with a hot spark... She was never going to stop thinking it was hot that he said such filthy things so matter-of-factly.

She had a feeling she was never going to stop thinking everything he did was hot.

 _Oh yes, I'm clearly high on dick_ , she thought, even as she reached for the hem of his borrowed sleep vest. It hit the ground, and Sokka's gaze raked her naked breasts.

“Spirits, you're fucking beautiful, Azula...” he said with awe in his voice. Azula felt that warm pop in her chest again, like champagne uncorking. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, feeling that warm liquid warmth spreading throughout her body.

Maybe she wasn't high on dick. Maybe she was just high on him?

She could live with that.

“Come here, troublemaker,” Sokka said, crooking his finger at her again. She glowed, flipping around in the bed to face his feet, and backing up so that his head was between her legs. Sokka reached down, tugging his pants off and kicking them down into the scrunched up blankets.

Then he grasped her hips, moving her into place above him. Azula's heartbeat picked up as she lowered herself down across him, her breasts against his stomach, her arms draped on his muscular thighs.

“I've never done this before. Both at the same time, I mean,” Azula admitted, feeling Sokka's warm mouth draw a line of kisses across the inside of her thighs. His face had been smooth last night, but now it was rough with stubble and the sensation of his hair prickling her made little shivers break out over her skin.

Oh, she could use to that feeling.

She could get used to a lot of things where Sokka was concerned.

Sokka stopped, and she could almost feel his grin. His hand rubbed her ass.

“So what else haven't you tried?”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and looked back at him as best as she could.

“Wouldn't you like to know?”

She could just see that gorgeous grin of his as he peeked out from beneath her. “Oh, a challenge, is it?”

“If you say so.”

“I guess I'll just have to do everything, then. Cover my bases,” he said and then bit down on her ass. She gasped and wriggled away from him, but he followed, wrapping his arms around her hips, the bite turning into a sucking kiss that made her hands clench on his thighs. His mouth moved down, down, and then, with a hot rake of his tongue, he was just _there._

“Ungg... Sokka...”

His tongue speared into her, licking, swirling, drawing out that warm wetness from deep within her. She could feel that throb in her womb again, the pounding rhythm of her heart. He moaned and withdrew his tongue, then gently sucked her labia into his mouth, pulling on it, flicking it with the tip of his tongue.

She wriggled down against his face, putting her head down against his thigh, every bit of her concentrating on the gentle pull of his mouth on her sensitive flesh. She completely forgot that she was supposed to be returning the favor, until she felt him lift his hips a little beneath her.

Her eyes opened and she raked her gaze over his stiff cock. She sat up just enough to wrap her hand around it, delighting in the way he moaned the moment she touched him. Her hand stroked him, from balls to tip and back again. She loved the satiny feel of him, the hard line of a thick vein that ran the course of his shaft, the dark flush of his balls...

His suckling mouth moved on, running kisses and licks along the dripping folds of her pussy. She could feel his hot breath on her clit, but he was ignoring it for now, coming close and backing off. It was driving her crazy already. She shifted beneath him, wanting him there, but he held her still...and swirled his tongue back inside of her again. It was a wet, erotic feeling, his tongue pressing into her opening, teasing the sensitive skin... Last night she'd come on his tongue like that while masturbating, and it had been probably the most erotic thing she'd ever done in her life.

“That feels so good,” she mumbled as she cradled his balls, rolling them in her fingers. He moaned and his hips shot up a little forcefully. Oh? He liked that?

Her hand stroked his shaft and then circled the base, pumping him with a squeeze. She bent and kissed around the base of his shaft, his hair pressing into her face. The scent of him, masculine and musky filled her senses. She kissed around the base of his shaft, and then gently pulled the crinkled skin of his balls into her mouth, tugging on it the way he'd tugged on her.

His moan was all the reward she needed, but his plunging tongue quickened, darting into her with intent. She let go of his skin and pressed her tongue into the soft skin there, her hand pressing his cock flat against his stomach. She sucked his ball into her mouth again and let it go with a soft, wet pop. His salty taste filled her mouth as she licked her lips and sat back a little, wriggling back into the press of his mouth.

She rained little kisses along his shaft, sucking at his hard flesh as her hand slid up and down the length of him. Admittedly, she'd never much been a blow job kind of girl. But for some reason Sokka was different. She liked putting her mouth on him. She liked the way he moaned when she did.

 _I just like pleasing him_ , she thought with a touch of wry humor at her own thirstiness. She couldn't remember ever feeling this way about any of her other lovers, not that there had been many of those. It seemed Sokka was the exception.

He was always the exception. That fact that he was exceedingly exceptional at fucking her took the sting out of it, she supposed. It was hard to be annoyed at a man who clearly loved eating her out.

His hot, licking tongue flicked out of her and then dragged down the center of her cunt. She breathed out against the head of his cock, feeling the first shockwave of pleasure as his tongue strafed against her ignored clitoris. She whimpered, dragging her own mouth against the rim of his head, her hand still slowly pumping him.

His tongue teased at her clit as he reached one hand between her legs and spread her open for him, exposing the quivering organ. He pushed back the hood and withdrew his tongue...and then she felt his fingertip there, slowly pressing into her clit, gently rubbing back and forth.

Pleasure ran through her like a blast of lightning. The muscles deep within her clamped down tight in a series of spasms that had her pressing back into the gentle swirl of his finger. The sensation was enough to make her forget she was supposed to be multitasking here and returning the favor.

Moaning, her hips working against the slow, torturous rub of his finger, Azula licked her lips and then pushed her mouth down on his thick head. The motion opened her jaws wide and once again she was impressed by just how thick he was.

Her jaw had even ached a little last night after she'd blown him, but it was a good ache. He wasn't too big that she couldn't take all of him into her mouth, but it was a tight fit. She hollowed her cheeks and drew back, then pushed down on him again.

She didn't want to tease him. She wanted to please him.

It didn't take her long to get lost in the rhythm of sucking his cock. Her eyes closed as she worked, her hand following her mouth with a twisting motion that made his hips shift up and down with every plunge of her mouth.

She could hear him moaning between her legs, and when his finger stopped rubbing those wonderful circles across her clit, she nearly pulled off of him to complain, but he replaced his finger with his mouth, pulling her clit between his lips and suckling it.

She pulled off of him with a panting gasping, saliva stringing from her lips to his cock. She rained kisses and licks down his shaft and then sucked his head into her mouth. Hollowing her cheeks, she ran her tongue across the head of his cock, sucking as hard as she dared, her hand pumping the slick length of him.

“Fuck you're so good at that,” Sokka mumbled as he released her clit from a relentless hard suck that made her shudder. She felt that throb go through her, deep and clenching.

She lifted off of him and shot back, “You're not so bad yourself.”

His hand came down on her ass with a sharp slap and she bounced away from the shock of it, stilling her hand. Sokka also stilled and then she heard his voice, a little meekly.

“Uh...too far?”

She thought a moment. Had anyone ever slapped her ass like that? No, she was pretty sure they hadn't. None of her other lovers would have dared.

“I don't know. Do it again.”

His hand cracked against her ass again, and she felt the sharp sting resonate through her. The warmth left behind in the place where his hand had landed seemed to sink through her. A hard flush started on her skin. She groaned, bit her lip and shifted over his face.

“I think you might like that, Princess,” Sokka laughed, his hand rubbing against the place where he'd smacked her. “I've always thought you could use a good spanking.”

Well now, didn't that conjure up some delightful mental images? She thought about being draped over Sokka's lap, writhing as he spanked her. A hard blush shook her. What exactly was he doing to her?

“Fuck you,” she mumbled.

“Thought I was,” Sokka growled, and then he pulled her clit into his mouth with another wet, sloppy motion that made them both groan. His tongue flicked across her clit with deadly intent. Shivering, she put her mouth back down on him, trying to take it all...which was probably not the best way to retaliate. But she was feeling merciful.

Especially when his tongue was pushing her closer and closer to the edge. She could feel it coming, cresting in little waves as his tongue burrowed into her flesh, swirling against the nerves, sending hot sparks of pleasure roaring through her body.

She tried to return the favor, but her ability to think about anything beyond her own pleasure quickly drained away. She was left panting, her face pressed to his thighs, her hand loosely encircling him. He didn't seem to mind, his mouth moving back and forth between her legs, noisily loving her.

Her hips bounced back and forth, a cry leaving her as the white-hot pleasure crested steadily. She started panting, and then her breath hitched, hiccuping into a series of shallow gasps. Her head buzzed as her hips tightened over his face.

When he suckled her clit back into his mouth, it was all she could do not to break on the spot. Her back arched, hair flying as she shoved her pussy down onto his head, pinning him there. He moaned, but kept going, spinning her into a gasping, panting climax that broke over her like a rushing, roaring wave.

She was vaguely aware of collapsing against him, with her face pressed into his thigh, trying to get back her lost breath. The inside of her mind was full of glittering sparkles, and she tried to grasp at them, but she was too lost to the pleasure of his mouth on her.

When he finally released her, she let out a shudder and kissed his thigh, intending on going back to the blow job she had abandoned, but he seemed to have other plans.

He gently pushed her to the side, and she was just relaxed enough not to fight it. He slid out from under her and flipped up onto his knees. When he grasped her and rolled her over onto her back, she blinked at him with a sated little smile on her lips.

“I didn't get you off,” she said, somewhat disappointed in that, but he shot a quick grin at her.

“I wasn't trying to get off...” he said as he fit himself in between her thighs. She felt his hand press into her pussy, fingers slipping gently inside of her. His other hand skimmed down the center of her body and then gently stroked her bruised throat. She breathed out, watching him through slitted eyes as he sank his fingers deep inside of her.

“But you made me cum. I should...”

Sokka looked up, his hair all in his eyes, his mouth open, tongue pressing against the inside of his bottom lip. He stroked her neck and she arched it into his hand, even as she pushed her hips upward, desperate to feel him press against that throbbing ache deep inside of her.

“I like making you cum, Azula. In fact...” he trailed off, as she felt his fingers press into her g-spot, hard. She bucked beneath him, feeling her body slam tight around his fingers.

“Sokka...”

“Do you trust me?” he asked softly, surprising her.

“What?” she replied, her hazy brain scrambling for sense. All she could feel was the mindless press of her hormones, the needs of her greedy body overriding everything else.

“Do you trust me, Azula?” he repeated, meeting her gaze, his hand still stroking her throat. He pressed against her g-spot again, and she gasped, arching her back. Her hand went to his at her throat.

“Yes...yes, I trust you, Sokka,” she panted. “Wh-why?”

“I want to try something... I'm not going to hurt you, but I need you to stop me if you're uncomfortable with it. I want you to snap your fingers if its too much. If you do, I'll stop. Do you understand? Snap your fingers for me.”

She hesitated, wondering what he was talking about, but then she decided to go with it. Whatever he was going to do, she had a feeling she was going to like it. She met his eyes and snapped her fingers.

“I do trust you, Sokka. Please...make me cum... I want to cum for you...”

He smiled and then bent over her, landing a kiss to her lips that was far too brief. Then he pulled back and searched her eyes for a moment. “Believe me, you will.”

Then the hand at her throat tightened, pressing her into the bed as he put his weight on her. His fingers pressed into the sides of her throat, hard, making the bruises his mouth had left twinge with pain that spiraled through her. She gasped, arching her head back as he his fingers pushed deep into her cunt, right there at the center of her universe.

She felt pinned beneath him, his to do with as he pleased. Somehow that should have frightened her. She should have instinctively shoved him away, and some part of her knew it, but...she didn't. The alarms going off in her head had nothing to do with him choking her.

No, the alarms were going off because she was enjoying it.

More than enjoying it. He was going to make her cum.

She put her hand over his again, her nails digging in as her mouth opened in a breathless pant. She could still breathe, but barely. She could feel pressure in her head as he cut off her blood supply. Her racing hard slammed against her ribs. His fingers pressed into her cunt, circling hard. Her legs drew up as her body spasmed around his fingers, clamping down tight.

She looked up and met his gaze, watching him as he held her down by her neck, fingering her into a panting, breathless, choking climax. The heat of his eyes scorched her. She could feel how red her face was getting as a hard sweat broke out over her.

“Cum for me, Princess...” Sokka mumbled, his mouth open in his own pant as he brought her to the edge. She teetered there for a long moment, so lost in it that she couldn't do anything but clutch at his hand around her throat, feeling her orgasm coming and coming and coming...breaking over her in waves.

Then, with a hard spasm and a warm, pumping squeeze, her body broke beneath his. He released her immediately, and she dragged in a deep lungful of air, riding his fingers as her hips rolled against his hand over and over again.

The blood rushed back into her head, making everything spin around her. Sokka bent over her and she felt his lips at her throat, kissing her bruises tenderly, mumbling something she couldn't quite make out through her own rapid pants. She clutched him to her and whimpered when his fingers slipped out of her body.

His mouth slowly kissed up her neck to her jaw and then to her lips. He landed a soft kiss there, feathering his lips against hers as she tried and failed to gain her lost breath. His hand stroked her cheeks and her throat, gently, reverently.

“It's okay...are you all right? Azula, talk to me, are you okay?” he said as he drew back. She was aware of tears rolling down her temples and dampening her hair. He wiped them away and nuzzled her nose with his. “Talk to me, troublemaker, are you okay?”

“Yes,” she breathed, swallowing. Her head was still buzzing, and her body was still throbbing with the aftershocks of her orgasm. “You choked me.”

His grin was a little guilty. “Yeah. You didn't like it?”

“I...didn't say that...” she said slowly, and then blushed. “I think I may have liked that a little too much.”

“Oh, she _blushes..._ ” Sokka grinned and stroked her warm face. She reached out down and smacked his ass hard enough to make him yelp, and then laugh. “What was that for?”

“For not doing it sooner.”

“Well, I kind of suspected you might be into it, but I wasn't sure if you'd let me.”

“I'm not sure I know _what_ I'm into,” she admitted softly. “You certainly have a way of finding out, don't you?”

“Well, when you're about to cum you tend to stop breathing. It's sexy as fuck. I thought you'd get off super hard if I choked you at the same time. Was I right?”

“Yes. Jerk.”

“Jerk who made you cum,” he said, teasingly. Then his grin dropped and he looked into her eyes. “Thank you for trusting me, Azula. You could still breathe, I was just cutting off your blood flow a little. I would never really hurt you. I just want to make you feel good. I just want...”

He stopped, swallowing, his gaze searching her face.

Azula reached up, cupping his face. She pushed his hair back and then leaned up, kissing him slowly, firmly, trying to tell him without words that she had enjoyed that. And she had...a lot. Maybe they'd try it again sometime...

And it was in that moment that she realized that she wanted to try it again. She wanted to sleep with him again. Not just this morning, but every night. Every day.

She wanted to wake up next to him. She wanted him to make her laugh again. She wanted him to tease her, to take long hot baths with her. She wanted him to tease out the secret, hidden things inside of her that even she didn't know about yet. She wanted him to discover her.

She wanted to keep him.

 _Forever_ , her brain whispered as she wrapped her arms and her legs around him, pulling him into her. His mouth dashed across hers in a deep, hungry kiss. When he joined their bodies, all she could do was cry out.

Oh yes.

She wanted him, and she intended to keep him.

Azula caught Sokka's hands, clasping their fingers as his hips rolled against hers, taking her slowly. She shivered against him, still coming down from her last climax, feeling her body grasping at his. He was going to make her cum again, and she knew it.

His fingers curled around hers, pushing her hands into the bed as his hot kiss became all-consuming. His tongue tasted of her body, of sleep, of desire... She, belatedly, realized that she probably had morning breath, but since he didn't seem to care, she decided not to either. It was hard to care about morning breath when she'd already had his dick in her mouth, after all.

For some reason that amused her and she laughed into his kiss. The sound was as close to a giggle as she'd ever done in her life, and it spilled into the air between them. Her face flamed, and she cut of the sound, lifting her head to recapture his now-smiling lips. Sokka backed off a little, however, his nose against hers. His lips nuzzled her lips and she felt his tongue flick against her bottom lip, hot and exciting.

“What are you laughing at, troublemaker?”

“Nothing, kiss me,” she said, hooking her legs around his waist and pulling him into her.

“Oh, no, no...” he said with mock seriousness. “I think I want to hear that giggle again. That was fucking sexy...”

“I don't giggle,” she said, sticking out her bottom lip. He grinned and darted forward, biting on her lip a little. He made a soft growling noise, his nose wrinkling. When he let go, that grin was back, mischief shining in his eyes. One of his hands loosened from hers and slid down her side. His hips pushed forward, locking him into place deep inside of her, pressing into her in all the most wonderful ways. She stuttered out a breath and glared at him. “Don't you do it.”

“Do what?”

“You know exactly what,” she said, eyes narrowed. “Don't even think it.”

“You mean... _this?_ ” he asked, and then his hands ran up her ribs, tickling her. She immediately jerked beneath him, writhing away from the delicious body torture. The laugh that immediately bubbled out of her was loud and braying.

“NO! SOKKA! AHAHAHAAA!” she screeched with a laugh as he slipped out of her. She twisted away from him, laughing, her smile so wide she was pretty sure her face was going to get stuck like that. She could feel a flush creeping across her skin again, in a hot wave. “You jerk!”

“Oohhhh, she's ticklish! Now I have a weapon!” he crowed as she flipped onto her stomach, her legs kicking. His hands scrabbled at her ribs and then down her sides.

“NO!” she laughed as he caught one of her feet in his hand. His fingers tickled the bottom of her foot and she thrashed in place, kicking out with her other foot on instinct...and kicking him right in the center of his chest. Sokka let out a grunt of pain, followed by a sound of alarm.

“Ahh, fuck! Oh, oh, oh! OH SHIT!” he cried out as he dropped her foot. She whipped around to face him and watched him slide off of the side of the bed, aided by the bulky blankets that he'd become entangled with sometime during their tickle fight. With wide eyes, he disappeared over the edge of the bed and out of sight, landing with a large bang on the floor.

“OH! SOKKA!” she said, laughing, one hand going over her mouth. “Are you okay?”

“Ow,” came his dry reply. She levered herself up on her hands and knees and crawled to the edge of the bed, looking down at him. He'd landed flat on his back, his legs hopelessly bound up with the blankets.

“What are you doing down there?” she asked innocently, grinning at him.

“Impersonating a rug,” Sokka replied with a grin, as he pillowed his head on his arms. Her eyes trailed along his body, watching his muscles ripple and flex. He was still hard for her. Her gaze fastened on his cock and she only realized she was staring when he cleared his throat. “See something you like?”

“Yes, actually,” she said crisply, one eyebrow rising. “And if you're through dicking around down there, I'd appreciate it if you'd start dicking around up here.”

Her eyes met his, issuing the challenge boldly. His grin changed into a lascivious wolf-like expression, those eyes of his blazing with heat.

“Tell me you want me to fuck you,” he said in a growling voice, switching gears on her again. Spirits, he was exciting.

She had a feeling if anyone else had ever dared to do any of the things he had done to her since last night, she'd have set him on fire. She certainly wouldn't have allowed anyone to tickle her... But it was different with Sokka.

Sokka was different. In all the ways that counted.

And she liked it when he got that growl in his voice. When he took her. Maybe she was just lazy, but she liked knowing that she could trust him to fuck her right without her issuing every order. Most of her lovers had been so afraid to put their hands on her she'd practically had to order them to do anything before they'd take a little initiative. Maybe that was why things had never lasted.

Was she just that intimidating?

Perhaps.

But Sokka wasn't intimidated by her. Not even a little. And she glowed at that thought.

She slowly licked her lips and looked down at him.

“I want you to fuck me. So get up here and fuck me already,” she snarled, her eyes flashing.

“Yes, Princess,” Sokka laughed darkly, untangling his legs and climbing to his feet. She turned around in the bed, intending to settle in the center of it, but his hands were suddenly there, on her hips, stilling her with her ass in the air. She let out a shuddery little breath as one of his hands slid down to her ass.

He caressed her skin, right across that place on her ass that was still stinging slightly. Her pulse raced as she thought about how good it had felt to feel his hand on her.

“Sokka...” His arm snaked around her waist and she cried out as he pulled her back against him, and then lifted her off of the bed entirely. As he set her on her wobbly feet, she asked, “What are you doing?”

His mouth landed on her bruised throat, drawing a sparkling, nibbling line up her neck to her ear. She could feel his cock against her ass, pressing into her with a stiff jab. Something inside of her clenched, wanting nothing more than to feel him there, deep inside of her, again. And again and again...

“Giving you what you want...” he mumbled against her ear. He pushed her legs apart, making her gasp. Then he pushed her forward so that her hips were against the mattress. Another rough shove had her face down on the bed. She gasped again, looking back at him with her eyes blazing.

Sokka met her eyes as he reached between them, biting his lip as he guided himself to her opening. He entered her with a rough growl and a hard thrust, taking her to the hilt and knocking a strangled cry out of her lips.

She danced on the spot, grabbing at handfuls of the sheets, lifting up on tiptoe as he bottomed out inside of her.

“Oh, fuck!” she cried, her hair tumbling into her face as she pressed back into him. Sokka's hands pressed on her lower back and her shoulder, keeping her there against the mattress. When he withdrew and then slammed back home, she found herself shaking in place, her knees like water. But there was nowhere to go. She was pinning between the bed and his rock hard body. “Yes...fuck me...”

“Louder, Azula,” Sokka said, withdrawing until only the head of his cock was inside of her. She whimpered, waiting...waiting...wanting it desperately...

“Sokka...”

“Louder. Tell me what you want.”

His voice was like honey. Like rolling thunder. Like warm velvet. Like fire and whiskey and chocolate and orgasms and fur coats and deep kisses and wild aching desire...

“Fuck me,” she said louder, her forehead pressed into the mattress, tearing at the sheets with her hands. “Fuck me!”

He plunged forward, rocking her forward into the edge of the mattress.

“Harder,” she found herself saying, in a voice she almost didn't recognize. She was dizzy all of a sudden, filled with him, drunk on him, elated... How had he taken her from one high to another so easily, making her come and then taking her down again, only to bring her back to the brink so easily?

 _If I'm not in love with him_ _already_ _, then_ _I will be,_ she thought, recklessly and with complete abandon. She might have been a little shocked at that thought if it didn't feel so completely, totally right. If that thought hadn't already been teasing at the back of her mind.

Well, she'd just have to deal with that...eventually...

But right now...

His body slammed against hers, taking her in hard thrusts that knocked those breathless pants out of her mouth. She had no control over own body all of a sudden. All she could do was clutch the sheets, her spine rolling with every plunge. The slap of his body against hers with indecent and she loved the sound of it. The feel of him so deep inside of her wet, clutching body...

“Sokka...fuck...right like that... Don't stop...ung!” she mumbled, her chest a tight, breathless mess. Sweat broke out over her body in a fresh wave. Her mouth opened as she pushed face into the mattress, bouncing with every pound of his hips against her ass.

When his hand came down on her ass, her head came up and she cried out, driving her ass back into him.

“YES!” she growled and pumped her hips back into him several times, taking his cock deep inside of her. It took her a moment or two to realize that he'd stopped moving and she looked back at him with blazing eyes. “Sokka, don't stop...”

Her hips pressed back with a mindless need to feel that delicious, slippery friction he was now denying her. She pushed off of the bed, still looking over her shoulder at him, her ass shoving back against him, impaling herself again and again. He didn't move, just watched her with those blazing fire-blue eyes.

“Fuck me...” she breathed, wriggling backward, taking him in short jerks of her hips.

“Yeah...show me how much you want it, Azula...” Sokka said and then he smacked her ass again. It made something in her break, some kind of deep, tight thing that she couldn't even name. But it was powerful. The emotion flooded through her like a dam bursting and she shoved back into him, riding his cock with a bouncing grind.

She slammed back against him, mindlessly rutting as he whispered to her, encouraged her. His hands clasped her hips hard enough to bruise, but she didn't care. He shoved her forward again, making her writhe between him and the mattress, his big cock pressing deep inside of her as her body greedily gripped his length, sliding up and down until the friction became overwhelming.

Her head started to buzz and she knew she was close. Her mouth opened in that wordless pant, shallow breaths escaping her. Her hair was all in her sweaty face, but she didn't care...she didn't care...she didn't care...

“Fuck me, Azula...make yourself cum... Cum all over that cock...”

It was that command in his voice that put her over the edge, that and the sudden memory of his hand around her throat, bringing her into a climax so hard she was sure she flew out of her skin entirely. She cried out, slamming back into him, and then she was lost in a shaking, wet, blissful orgasm that seemed to go on and on.

Her legs shook, her body quivering like the strings of a well-tuned instrument, the sound coming of her nothing but music and moans. It was a never-ending symphony, expanding in her until she felt small and infinite at the same time.

She pushed her face into the blankets, her face screwed up, fresh sweat pouring down her temples. She was still shaking, her body clamping down on his greedily.

“That's my girl,” Sokka mumbled and she smiled into the sheets, feeling his body pressing her forward, pinning her there again. His hands pressed on the small of her back as he pushed his cock deep inside of her clenching channel. He slowly withdrew, just a little, just enough, and pushed gently back into her.

Her legs quivered, her knees threatening to collapse on her entirely. She'd thought for sure that she was fit, at her peak, even. But he was proving otherwise, making her shake and shiver, her muscles like water, every nerve in her body alive with feeling. Her head was buzzing and she had a feeling if she came one more time she'd be in trouble.

“Come here,” Sokka said, and she found herself being gently pulled upright, one of his strong arms scooping up beneath her and dragging her back against his chest. Her ass pushed into him as he stretched her. Delicious little shivers of pleasure raced through her body at the change in position, his cock pushing right against that deep, aching mound inside of her.

She let out a whimper, her head going back against his chest. Sokka's mouth landed on her neck, dragging those aching kisses along her pulse point, sending more little shivers through her overheated skin. She was slick with sweat, her skin ruddy with a blotchy flush that she hated, but couldn't help. This was what he did to her. She had no control...

“Sokka...I...” she started, but then bit down on her lips. She'd nearly said something she knew she was going to regret. She was a little too lost in her climax to be talking, and she knew it. She'd say something too damned truthful, too close to the heart of her...

She may even tell him how she felt...and that would be a disaster...

Even if she felt it, truly felt it, with every inch of her body, her soul, her heart, her reeling mind.

She felt Sokka's hand at her throat and let out a shuddery breath of anticipation. But he didn't clamp down, instead he stroked her flesh, his breath warm and loud against her ear. His hips were slowly rolling against hers, soft and gentle, for all that he was achingly hard inside of her. She felt like she was being fucked against a wall again; his big body was as unmovable as marble. She wanted to shatter against him, again and again, for all eternity.

“I'm never going to get tired of making love to you.”

“Pretty...sure...you're...fucking me...” she said breathlessly as her head tipped back. His hand tightened on her throat then, but not enough to cut off her air. Just enough to keep her there against him. She loved the weight of his hand there, the possessive caress of it...

She just flat out loved the idea of being his, of being claimed by him in every way possible.

“I can do both,” he said and kissed her cheek sweetly. She laughed at that and her laugh was breathless and giddy. He smiled against her temple, his hand pressing flatly against her toned stomach, holding her there against the gentle roll of his hips. “Mmm...you feel amazing...”

“You realize I'm never letting you leave, right?” she mumbled, and then stopped, her eyes popping open. A little hit of panic slammed into her and she swallowed. His hips stilled for half a second, just enough for her to realize he'd heard her.

Then his hand tightened on her throat and his pushed himself into her, just a little harder than before, just enough for her to feel the difference.

“Who said I wanted to? I have every intention of making you mine, Azula,” Sokka whispered, nuzzling her neck. She turned her head and caught his gaze, lifting her hand to tangle in his loose hair. She missed the wolf's tail all of a sudden, but she liked feeling his thick brown hair sliding through her fingers.

“I am yours,” she said, even though the warning bells were going off in her head. She may regret saying it later, but not when that heat lit his eyes up like signal fires. And hadn't she already told him that, in so many words? Hadn't she told him that with her body, with her heart in her eyes? He leaned in and his mouth found hers with a groan they both shared.

His kiss was off-center—they weren't exactly at a good angle to be kissing at the moment—but there was heat in it. His hips pulled back and snapped forward, filling her with a jarring thrust that shocked pleasure throughout her oversensitive flesh.

His mouth left hers and he kissed down her jaw, her neck, and back up to her ear.

“You're mine. You're mine,” he mumbled in ear and then his hand slid down her stomach, pushing in between her thighs. Azula cried out as his fingers pressed her clit flat, rubbing in a tight circle that made her dance against him, writhing in place.

“Oh, Sokka! I... UNG!” Her hand went to his hand around her throat, and she felt the smallest squeeze from him as he tightened his hold on her. Her hips bounced back against him again, her shaking legs threatening to send her tumbling to the floor at any moment.

Sokka's fingers circled her clit, bringing her to the edge again with slick ease. She ground back against him, feeling his cock throbbing, twitching deep inside of her, even as she squeezed him.

“Cum for me... I want you to cum...love it... Yeah, bounce on it...” Sokka was growling in her ear in a nonstop string of broken encouragements. He groaned as her body squeezed his and she realized how close he was, but she couldn't do anything but bounce on his cock, the friction sending her into that breathless, spinning place where nothing mattered but pleasure. Pleasure and him, the feel of him, his voice, his hand on her throat, between her legs...

Her mouth opened, back arching as she lost complete control over her body yet again. She came with another deep, hard spasm and this time there was no putting her back into her body. She shivered and shook as Sokka pressed her forward, into the bed again.

Everything was distant, far away and warm. His hand slipped out from between her legs, her clit throbbing like a dying star. When he pulled out of her she whimpered, but couldn't move. Sokka gave a soft groan, grabbing a handful of her ass. She felt his cock against her, pushing into her and then out with slow, deliberate plunges.

She glanced back at him, and he looked at her. His face was red, his eyes glassy.

“Cum on me.”

Had she really just said that? She wasn't sure, but the words seemed to work on Sokka like a cattle prod and he pulled out of her with a shake in his limps. His cock was turning purple at the tip and when he put his fist around it, she could see cum already beading there, pearly and dripping.

His hand slid up and down, but he stilled, his gaze flicking up to meet hers.

“Come here,” he said tightly and she found herself turning, sliding to the floor at his feet, her knees totally useless beneath her. It didn't matter. “Look at me.”

She looked up into his eyes, her tongue sliding along her lips, feeling a deep well of satisfaction in her. She loved seeing him like this, ready to come for her, _because_ of her...

His hand pumped around his shaft, more cum beading out of him. His teeth clenched and she saw his eyes flutter shut. His muscles quivered, stomach contracting and then...

With a hard grunt and a furious pump of his hand, he came onto her bare breasts in pearly ropes. The warm liquid spattered her in drops, rolling down her breasts, pooling in her clavicle, and dripping thickly from her nipples.

She looked down at the mess for a moment, and then up at Sokka's, whose head was tilted back, throat exposed. He was breathing hard, his pumping hand slowing to a halt.

“Fuck...” he said with feeling and then wiped his hand down his sweaty face. When he opened his eyes and looked down at her, he grimaced. “Fuck, that's hot.”

Azula grinned and ran her fingertips across the tops of her breasts. She looked up and sucked her fingers into her mouth. The salty taste of him spread on her tongue. She loved his taste...she wanted more...wanted to feel him burst in her mouth again...

Impulsively, she sat up on her knees and grasped him by the root of his cock. She pushed her mouth down on him, sucking hard, her head bobbing. She heard Sokka curse, felt his hand on the back of her head, sliding down to the back of her neck. He pushed her down onto his cock a little harder, until he was touching the back of her throat.

She gagged and pulled off of him, and then plunged down again and again, until he was cursing and shaking before her. Her hands clasped his ass, pulling him into her, her fingers digging into the delicious muscle. She wanted to devour him.

When he came into her mouth with another hot burst, and a rough, guttural cry of her name, all she could do was swallow, greedily, glancing up at him she tongue swirled against his hard flesh, lapping up every drop.

She pulled back with a gulping sound and looked up him with that greed still in her eyes. Her tongue traced her lips as her hand slid up and down his slick shaft. His eyes were hot on hers as she reached up and primly wiped a droplet of cum from the corner of her mouth.

Sokka's eyes searched hers for a long moment, his breathing tacky and uneven. Then he bent over her, her hand slipping off of his cock. He cupped her face and she saw something in his eyes that she'd seen there before—last night, when he'd made love to her...and in the bath afterwards...

It was an emotion that should have scared her, but didn't. It filled her heart, as thoroughly as he had pleasured her, and smashed through whatever walls she might normally have erected.

There was just him. And her. And whatever this was between them.

“I think I love you,” Sokka whispered, and then kissed her.

_I think I love you._

His words echoed in her ears as his kiss seared her, gluing her to the spot. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't even kiss him back.

_I think I love you._

The words tried to penetrate the soporific haze of her post-coital mind, trying to tell her that those words meant something. Something huge.

If he even meant them.

_I think I love you._

Spirits, her racing mind shot at her, what if he hadn't meant them?

Something hard slammed in her chest, a panicked feeling that knocked the air out of her like a raging moose-lion. She withdrew a little, flattening her lips, and he pulled back, a look of confusion in crossing his brows.

“Azula, are you okay?” he asked in that tender way of his. She nodded and touched her lips.

“Yes, I'm fine. That was... That was incredible,” she said and then glanced down at her breasts. “I'm a mess. Again.”

“Sorry.” But he didn't sound sorry.

“Why don't I believe you?” she shot at him, putting one hand on the mattress and levering herself up. He caught her elbow and helped her to her feet. Her knees were still shaking, but she stayed upright, her skin rippling with goosebumps at the barest touch of his hand on her arm.

“Easy,” he said, shooting her a little grin as she glanced up at him and then away.

_I think I love you._

“I should, um... I need to shower,” she said, tugging her arm out of his grip.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Umm... I just need...” she stopped herself and squared her shoulders. “I need a moment alone, okay? I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.”

Sokka hesitated, and she felt his curious eyes on her. But he merely nodded and wiped a hand down his face.

“Yeah, of course. Are you sure you're okay? I know that was intense...”

“I'm fine. Uh... Why don't you order us some breakfast...or lunch, or whatever they're serving right now? I'm starving.”

Sokka's smile was lazy, but his eyes were still worried. “I like the way you think, Princess. I'm feeling a little dehydrated myself. Go on, I'll catch one of the million servants you rich folks seem to have running around every inch of this place and get us a feast. I'd say we earned it.”

She couldn't argue with that, and to accentuate the point, her stomach gave a needy little rumble. She put one hand on her stomach and glanced at him. He was looking at her strangely, with soft eyes and a question lurking in the frown at the corner of his lips.

_I think I love you._

She felt that warm flush break out over her again, that pressure on her chest. She licked her lips and turned away from him. She could feel his eyes on her the whole way into the bathing room, and when she shut the door, she thought she heard him curse, lightly, under his breath.

With the door between them, she let out a breath and collapsed back against it, one hand over her mouth. His words ran roughshod through her thoughts on an endless loop. What had he meant by that? Was it just the heat of the moment? The sex? Had it just been some kind of empty rhetoric, like saying something stupid like, _I think I love boa,_ after you've had a good meal?

Was she just a good meal? Was she just boa to him?

“Don't be stupid,” she chided herself in a mumble, pushing away from the door. She emptied her bladder, and then headed to the shower, grabbing a washcloth and turning on the taps. Hot water billowed out of the shower head, steam rising immediately. She stepped beneath the spray, letting it blast across her chest, washing away every trace of his lovemaking.

The soap smelled like Sokka and she found herself breathing in the scent as she lathered up and washed away the sweat and dried fluids from her aching, over-exerted body. She felt both exhausted and exhilarated, and she didn't know what to make of it. She rinsed away the suds and reached for the shampoo, trying to lose her racing thoughts in the hot water and the scent of his soap.

It didn't work. Not a bit.

By the time she turned off the shower, her hands were shaking. Her knees were still wobbly and she felt like she might burst out of her skin for an entirely different reason than the feel of his mouth against hers, his body shattering inside of her...

And that kind of thinking wasn't helping matters.

She wrapped her body and wet hair in two big, fluffy towels, and then brushed the taste of him out of her mouth with one of the toothbrushes the servants stocked the palace guest rooms with. When she was done, she wiped her mouth on a towel, and stood there at the sink, staring into the steamed up mirror on the wall.

She reached out and drew a heart in the steam with her index finger. Droplets of water dripped down the mirror from the lopsided shape. The poor thing look malformed and sad...

She stared at the dripping heart on the mirror and then reached up, wiping it away with the curl of her fist. She bit her lip at the sight of herself revealed in the mirror. Her eyes looked huge, her lips red and kiss-swollen. The bruises on her neck were turning a delicate shade of plum, standing out starkly on her skin.

_I think I love you._

She couldn't get the words out of her head. What if he hadn't meant them? And more importantly, what if he had?

She _wanted_ those words to have meant something. She wanted to be someone Sokka loved and she knew it. She let out a shuddering breath and ran her fingers over her lips, feeling the ghost of his kiss there. It wasn't a revelation. She'd already known last night how she felt. She just hadn't wanted to confront it. She'd thought it was too soon, that she was being stupid, impulsive, jumping in heart first.

And maybe she was. Maybe he didn't feel the same way.

She closed her eyes, feeling tears stinging them all of a sudden. She swiped them away with her shaking hand, feeling entirely too overwhelmed at the moment to untangle her emotions. She felt a blast of anger all of a sudden, and it surprised her. She had no idea why she was angry, but she felt it, deep in her bones, in the same places where Sokka had dug into her, had opened her up and made a home for himself.

He had shattered the walls she'd always had up around her so easily. He'd loved her and made her feel like... She didn't even know. She had nothing to compare it to. All of her other lovers and trysts had been purely physical. She'd never felt anything for them beyond what she could get out of them in the moment. She had never let it be anything but that.

She had never been in love before, but she was pretty sure she was in love with Sokka. Real, honest, hurting-down-to-the-bone, heart-aching _love._ She'd been feeling that way about him for a while, try as she might to hide it and ignore it, but everything that had happened between them had made it so much clearer to her. She couldn't deny it, and maybe it was too soon, but she knew it was real. Completely real.

And she had no idea what to do about it. Or how he felt.

_I think I love you._

Azula stared at her reflection in the mirror for a long moment. “So I'm love with him. No big deal? Right?” she mumbled and blew out a breath. So she was in love with him. So what? That didn't mean she had to tell him... That didn't mean she had to make herself any more vulnerable than she already had, especially if he didn't feel the same way. She'd just...have to keep her head.

Obviously, that was easier said than done. Where Sokka was concerned, she clearly had no control. She had thrown herself into his arms so easily, so completely... She was almost ashamed of herself. What if he knew already? What if he'd seen it in her eyes?

She pressed her knuckles to her forehead and squeezed her burning eyes shut. She wished she could just shut off her brain for a moment, and even better, build a wall around her heart again. But her brain, her body, her heart were all in shambles. The pieces were too sharp and too tangled to put together at the moment.

She wasn't this woman, this woman who fell in love and got mushy and gushy over a man. She had never seen herself that way. She'd always assumed love was something she just...didn't need. She'd thought her feelings for him were aberrations, confusing, mixed in with anger and antagonism and burning, sexual tension.

She'd thought for sure fucking him would put things straight for her, but it was so much worse now. Sex had been a gateway drug to whatever the hell this was. She felt like a fool. And she'd only played herself.

A knock sounded on the door, startling her.

“Azula?” Sokka called through the door. “I've got some clothes for you.”

Clothes? Clothes, why would she ever want clothes again, she thought with amusement, thinking of the way his eyes had burned as he'd raked them across her naked body. She let out a breath, clutching the towel to her breasts.

“Coming,” she said, opening the door with a billow of steam, to reveal Sokka standing on the other side. He'd put on his pajama pants again and she felt mild disappointment at that, then chided herself. They couldn't spend all day naked, as much as she wanted to. She spotted the bundle of red clothing in his hands, as he smiled at her slowly, almost shyly.

“I hope you don't mind, I had the servants send for a change of your clothing. Since I...uh...ruined your dress last night,” he said, handing her the bundle. She felt heat in her cheeks, remembering the way he'd ripped the bodice of her dress, the way her breasts had spilled out into his waiting mouth... She looked up at him and bit down on her lip.

“Thank you,” she said softly, feeling awkward. She had never really done a morning after before. She usually kicked her lovers out of her room the moment she was done with them. She didn't know how to be... Anything but distant, really.

Sokka leaned against the door frame and looked her over. “I ordered food, too. It should be here soon.”

“I should... I should really... I should go.”

His hand shot out, taking hers and twining their fingers. “Don't you try and disappear on me, troublemaker.”

She started and looked from their hands to those warm fire-blue eyes of his. It was like being punched in the heart. The tender expression on his face was too damned tempting. She wanted nothing more than to fall into his arms again.

“I wasn't...” she started and then stopped. She nibbled her bottom lip as Sokka's eyebrows raised. “Okay, I was. But you should know that I don't normally do this.”

“Do what? Have breakfast?”

“Yes. Morning afters in general aren't exactly my thing. Sticking around for second rounds before breakfast is also not my thing. I've never spent the entire night with anyone, I've never...” She stopped, feeling like she was rambling and revealing too much all of a sudden. This wasn't the kind of thing you told someone you were still trying to impress. “I'm just not that type of woman”

Sokka laughed softly. “I beg to differ, Azula. Maybe you haven't been that type of woman with any of the other idiots you've slept with. And they were idiots. Not a single one of them knew what they had...not a single one of them...”

“How do you know that?”

“They let you push them away. They let you go. That makes them idiots in my book.”

“It wasn't that--” she started to protest, though she wasn't sure why. Spirits knew she'd always felt rather...unsatisfied by her past relationships. She wouldn't even have called them relationships. She'd had lovers, sure, but they had all been sexual in nature and brief. She flushed a little. “I'm not the relationship type...”

“You think so?” he said softly and the heat in his eyes scorched her.

“Sokka...”

“Please...just stay. I want to talk about this...us... This thing between us. I'm not the best at this either. Last night I almost fucked it up, and I don't want to do that again. So please stay. At least for breakfast. Or lunch. Or whatever. Call me selfish, but I don't want you to go. Please.” His smile was a gentle tease, and it melted whatever flimsy resolve she'd been building. She didn't want to leave either.

She wanted to climb him like a tree and brand her name on his ass, but she was wise enough not to say so.

“Well, since you begged...”

“I knew you'd like that.”

He squeezed her hand and then brought it up to his lips. He scattered little kisses across her knuckles and she let out a soft breath as tingles spread up her arm. It was like some phantom feeling of pleasure, remembering the touch of his hands on her body, sliding along her skin, cupping her face...gripping her hips...and staring into her eyes...

_I think I love you._

She could see it in his eyes, that look, that fierce, wanting look that turned her inside out. She wanted it to mean what she thought it meant, but she couldn't bring herself to believe it. She was terrified that she was wrong, that she was reading the situation entirely wrongly, that he hadn't meant a word of it.

When he leaned in, she didn't stop him, lifting her chin to gently meet the warm rush of his mouth. He tasted of her body, of sleep, and something warm and spicy that seemed to swirl through her like a rich, heady dessert. His thumb was beneath her chin, keeping her there, his fingers stroking her neck. She felt a shiver go through her, shaking her wet shoulders as she clutched the towel and the bundle of her clothing to her chest.

The kiss seemed to sear her from the inside out, like he was trying like hell to tell her something, without words. She tried to grasp the meaning of it, but it was lost in the rush of her desire. Spirits, all he had to do was kiss her and she was lost.

Maybe he was right. Maybe she was that girl after all. And if she was, she blamed him.

Sokka... Sokka, it had always been Sokka... Even when she hadn't wanted to admit it, it had been him she wanted. Every tryst, every lover, had all had his face in her dreams. Now she had him, so what was she going to do? Run like a coward? Or claim what was hers?

He pulled away and smiled at her, and she made up her mind on the spot. She wasn't leaving. Not for anything.

“I need to shower, too,” he said, his hand trailing down her bruised throat and swirling in the water droplets on her skin. “Please say you'll wait for me?”

“I'm not going anywhere,” she said, moving out of the doorway to let him through. He kissed her cheek as he passed and she felt another thrill go through her.

“The food should be here by the time I'm done. We'll eat and we'll talk.”

“Okay.”

The door closed behind him, and she let out a shaky breath, feeling that panic in her again, despite her resolve. She wasn't going to run. He wanted to talk...fine... But she wasn't going to admit anything until he did.

She'd just have to play it cool.

“Not that I have any cool when it comes to him,” Azula mumbled to herself as she walked over to the bed and put down her clothes. She dried off and then slipped into clean underwear, a soft pair of dark red trousers and a tight-fitted shirt with slit sleeves, piped in gold and black and cut daringly low. She cursed a little; there would be no hiding the hickeys on her neck in this thing.

The servant hadn't bothered with breast wrappings either, and she hadn't been wearing them under her tightly-fitted, structured bodice last night, so when she pulled on the soft silk shirt, it clung indecently to her bare breasts, the tips of her nipples protruding and giving away the still-aroused state of her body.

She put both hands over her breasts and cursed again, then shrugged. She'd let him jizz all over her breasts earlier; modesty didn't really become her at this stage.

She was toweling her hair dry and idly wondering if he had a comb she could borrow when a knock sounded on the guest room door. She dropped the towel on the floor and headed over to it, her stomach growling at the thought of food. In the bathing room, she heard the shower turn off.

The knock came again, a rapid pound that was insistent and annoying. She frowned as she reached for the ornate, gold-leaf handle of the (now slightly charred) wooden door; the servants usually knocked more sedately than that. A food delivery wasn't exactly an emergency. She wondered what could be so urgent.

“This had better be an emergency, because--” she started, and stopped as she swung the door open. The breath left her in a rush, her eyes widening as she stared into a familiar pair of mismatched, citrine eyes. “Oh, shit.”

Zuko's hand stopped as he stared at her, his mouth forming a little round shape of surprise as their gazes met. He stared at her uncomprehendingly, his brows drawing up in the middle. Then his eyes flicked to her wet hair, then down her neck, sweeping across the bruises and hickeys. He spotted her bare feet, and then flicked back to her face, with her swollen lips and surprised eyes.

“Zuzu!” she said brightly.

From behind her, she heard the bathing room door open and she glanced toward Sokka as he came out in nothing but a low-slung towel, dripping with water, his skin red from the hot water. She reached for the door in a belated and useless attempt to close it, or at least to block her brother's view of the bathing room door.

Zuko's hand lifted, slapping it back as she swung it forward, knocking it out of her hand so that it banged against the wall with a hard slam. She winced.

“Hey, babe, is that the food?” Sokka asked, looking up through his wet hair.

“Uh...” she started as Zuko's slowly narrowing eyes swept across Sokka, who finally spotted the Fire Lord. Sokka's eyes popped, his dusky skin draining paper white.

“Oh, shit. Zuko...”

Zuko's expression closed down, rage blooming in his eyes as he lifted one shaking finger and pointed it at Sokka. “You're a fucking dead man.”

“Zuko, calm down!” Sokka said, holding out a hand as Zuko charged into the suite. He nearly dropped his towel and caught it at the last second, holding it right over his crotch. Which probably didn't help matters; the towel didn't cover much and hung limply in front of him, exposing just about everything but the main event. “It's not what you think!”

“It's not?” Zuko and Azula said at the same time—Zuko in a sarcastic voice, Azula in a soft, deadly tone. Sokka's wide eyes flicked to her and then back to Zuko.

Sokka's mouth opened and he looked from his towel to the rumpled bed in the corner, to the torn dress on the floor, his own discarded clothes, and then back to Azula. Her eyebrow lifted.

“Okay, it's _exactly_ what you think,” Sokka said with a wince.

“NO SHIT!” Zuko said, throwing up his hands. His face was turning red. “I ought to fucking kill you!”

And with that, Zuko conjured a handful of flames out of the air and drew back his hand. Sokka held up his hand and danced back toward the open bathing room door.

“WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! Let's talk about this!”

“Talk about what? YOU FUCKED MY SISTER! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU??!!” Zuko bellowed, moving into a firebending form. Azula rolled her eyes and slammed the door shut with a loud bang.

“Touch him and I'll light your pretty little robes on fire, _Fire Lord_ ,” Azula drawled loudly.

“AND _YOU!_ ” Zuko declared accusingly, turning on her with his finger pointed. “I don't know what kind of scheme you're running, but--”

“Point your fucking finger at me one more second and I'll make sure you never have children,” Azula snarled, anger blasting through her. She was too hungry and too confused for this bullshit. She lifted her fingers and sparks of electricity danced on the ends. “I'm serious, Zuzu!”

Zuko hesitated, rage in his eyes, but he dropped his hand the next moment. The fire sputtered out. “I don't know what game you're playing, Azula, but I'm putting a stop to _whatever_ this is right now!”

“Whatever this is has nothing to do with you! This is between me and Sokka!” she said, dispersing the lightning on her fingertips, although she could still feel it coursing through her body, hot and wild and ready to unleash.

She'd love nothing more than to blast Zuko in the ass with it, but that would probably make the situation even worse. She felt a little disappointed in herself; once upon a time she'd have done it just to stir the pot. She was getting soft, and she hated it. Maybe Sokka was right. She _was_ tired of playing nice all the time. Maybe she should remind her brother who he was dealing with.

Being bad had always looked so good on her, after all.

Zuko didn't seem to realize what kind of danger he was in. Ignoring her, he put one hand to his forehead, staring into the middle distance. “Spirits, I knew something weird was going on last night! I knew you two were acting weird. I knew _you_ were planning something! I didn't think it was... _Whatever_ this is!”

“I wasn't planning anything! It just... It just happened!” Azula started, and then wondered why she was even bothering. This was none of Zuko's business, and she didn't owe him a single explanation.

Zuko threw out his hands, gesticulating wildly to the room at large, the bed, naked Sokka and herself. “Spilling your tea just happens! Having sex with someone doesn't just happen, Azula! Whoops! We sorta fell into bed together, my bad! I don't fucking think so!”

“Get off her back, Zuko, for fuck's sake!” Sokka snarled, squaring his shoulders. “We're both adults. You need to back off!”

Zuko turned on him, shaking his head. “I can't believe you slept with my sister!”

“Oh, calm down, Zuzu! There was very little sleeping going on,” Azula snarked. She saw Sokka suppress a grin at that.

“Not helpful, babe,” Sokka shot at her.

“DON'T! Don't you fucking call her that! What—how—when did--!? No! No, I don't want to know!” Zuko said, waving his hands, eyes squeezed shut tightly. “I don't even want to think about you defiling my sister.”

“Defiling me? I'm not some holy virgin, Zuzu,” Azula snorted. “Haven't been for a long time.”

“I don't need to know that!” Zuko burst out.

“Oh, just like I don't need to know that you and _Suki_ have been fucking in secret for at least two years? I've nearly walked in on it too many times to count, it's disgusting. Do you even know how fucking traumatizing it is to hear your brother begging his bodyguard to suck his dick?”

Zuko's angry expression melted into a close-mouthed, wide-eyed look of shock. She saw him swallow and whip his head around to look at Sokka.

Who was making the most delighted face imaginable.

“Ooohhh ho ho ho!” Sokka laughed deep in his throat. He jabbed his finger in Zuko's direction, and then at the ceiling with a triumphant, “I fucking knew it! I knew something was going on between you two!”

“The whole damned palace knows it,” Azula snapped, rolling her eyes. “You think you're both so slick, but you're completely obvious about it. Everyone knows not to go into your office without knocking now, because you're probably in there banging her at all hours! Seriously, everyone knows she spends the night in your room and leaves before dawn.”

“That's not... We're very discreet about it!”

“The council table.”

“That only happened once!” Zuko sputtered.

“The throne room.”

“This is none of your business!” he burst out.

“And my sleeping with Sokka is none of yours!”

“No! No! It's completely different! What I have with Suki is... We are... I'm...”

“Fucking my ex?” Sokka offered.

“In love with her,” Zuko corrected him with some dignity. “It's a complicated situation, but we're in love and not ready to share... _that_...with anyone just yet. And besides, Sokka, you two haven't dated in seven years. I hardly think it's the same thing as you having a one-night stand with my _sister!_ ”

“I didn't say it was the same thing, I said it was none of your business,” Sokka snapped. “It's none of my business what you and Suki do. And it's none of your business what Azula and I are doing. You need to pull your head out of your ass.”

“Why do you even care, Zuko? Spirits, you're acting just like father!”

Zuko's mouth fell open like she really had shot him with lightning. “You take that back.”

“Well, it's true! I'm a grown woman, Zuko. If I want to sleep with the entire standing army of the Fire Nation, I will, and I don't care one damned bit what you have to say on the subject!”

“The entire army?” Sokka said, eyebrows lifting.

“What? I can't have goals?” she shot at him and he laughed.

“My little go-getter,” Sokka said appreciatively, shaking his head.

Zuko made a huffing noise. “This isn't funny!”

“It's really not,” Azula said, glaring at him. “You don't get to judge me or treat me like this, Zuko.”

Zuko opened his mouth and then closed it. “I just think you're better than a one-night stand, Azula.”

“Zuko, you've got the wrong impression here, man,” Sokka said in a suddenly low voice.

“About what? Did you or did you not sleep with her?”

“Not about that, you puffed up idiot,” Sokka growled. “I mean it wasn't a one-night stand.”

“YOU MEAN YOU'VE DONE THIS BEFORE!?” Zuko burst out.

“No! I...” Sokka glanced at Azula and their eyes met again. His expression softened from aggravation to that eager, wanting look that spun her about like leaves on the wind. She suddenly couldn't breathe. “I don't intend it to be a one-night stand. Because... Because I think I'm in love with Azula.”

His words spun through, as warm as liquid gold, filling the empty places inside of her.

“What?” Zuko breathed, blinking stupidly at Zuko and then glancing at her with wide eyes. But she only had eyes for Sokka.

“What did you say?” Azula said, walking toward him a few steps. Then she stopped, her hand going to her damp, tangled hair. Her shaky knees seemed to suddenly disappear on her. She felt like the floor was dropping out from beneath her.

“I think—no, I don't think. I _know._ I know it,” Sokka said, nodding confidently. A smile fleeted across his lips. “Azula, I'm in love with you.”

“Oh,” she said, too stunned to do anything but stare at him. He bit down on his lower lip, a look of confused amusement in his eyes.

“Oh?” Sokka said, searching her face. “Is that all you're gonna say?”

“No.”

“I think I'm going to have a stroke,” Zuko mumbled, but they both ignored him.

“So... You meant that. Earlier. You meant that. You don't think I'm bao,” Azula said haltingly.

Sokka laughed, showing dimples in his cheeks. “Bao?”

“Forget I said that,” she frowned, shaking her head. “You love me?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure it's not the sex talking? Because I know it was fantastic,” she said, putting one hand on her hip. Sokka's grin was dazzling. “The best of your life, probably.”

Behind her, Zuko mumbled, “Spirits, I _hope_ it's a stroke.”

“ _Definitely_ the best, but it's not that,” Sokka said, closing the distance between them. He took her hand in his free one. “I mean, I'll admit, it didn't hurt. But...I already knew I had feelings for you. Deep ones. Deeper than I realized before we were together. That's why I walked away last night. I was afraid it didn't mean as much to you as it did to me, and I didn't want you to know how I felt about you if it was completely one-sided. But then you were in my room and... And I knew. I knew last night that it went deeper than I realized, that I was completely and totally in love with you and could you please say something, I'm babbling and I'm pouring my heart out here, in front of your very angry brother. And I'm naked.”

Her eyebrow lifted and she glanced down between them, at the towel barely covering him. “And so vulnerable.”

His bottom lip poked out. “So very.” She laughed a little, and he leaned down, pressing his forehead against hers. “This isn't how I was going to tell you, and I definitely didn't plan to say all that in front of your jerk brother.”

“Hey!” Zuko interjected. Again, they ignored him.

Sokka went on, reaching up and stroking her neck, sending shivers coursing through her. “I also know it's too fast, so feel free to ignore--”

She lifted up on tiptoe and stopped him with a soft kiss to the lips. His hand slipped around her neck and he angled his kiss against her mouth, soft and gentle, telling her without words just how serious he was.

He loved her. Sokka loved her.

Spirits, what did that mean? Did it have to mean anything? Did she want it to?

 _Yes,_ she thought desperately. It meant something. Hadn't she already admitted to herself how she felt about him? She knew in bones that he was the one—whatever that meant—but it did mean something.

Maybe it was too fast, but she had never been one to hesitate. Not when she wanted something. And there was nothing she wanted more than Sokka.

When she settled back onto the heels of her feet, breaking the kiss, she opened her eyes and caught his bemused, dazed stare. He stroked her neck, that little smile fleeting across his lips as he stared at her in wonder. It was the same look he'd given her last night.

She bit down on the inside of her lip and then jumped in feet-first. No regrets.

“I love you, too.”

She could see the effect of her words in the smile that stretched across Sokka's face. He let out a little laugh and then dropped his towel at their feet. He grabbed her, lifting her up against his naked chest, his arms around her thighs. Her mouth slammed to his in fierce, powerful kiss that completely stole her breath.

The blood was rushing in her ears. Everything was spinning. Her hands sank into his wet hair, clutching at him as he held her there against him. She hoped he never let her go.

“So you two are just...in love now? Yesterday I thought you were have a duel to the death and now you're in love. And kissing. Naked. Fantastic,” Zuko said, causing them to break apart.

“You can leave, you know,” Azula shot at him, trying not to laugh as Sokka nuzzled her neck. Zuko's expression resembled something like disgust, his lip curling. “We're having a moment.”

“Could you just not do that? Ever?” Zuko said.

“Fuck off,” Azula and Sokka said together.

Zuko ran a hand down his face and sighed. “Fine. This is a thing that's happening and I am dealing with it. I am a mature person and I can deal with this.”

“Well, deal with it elsewhere, bud,” Sokka said, gesturing to the door.

“I can't, I came here for a reason,” Zuko said, pulling a scroll out of his sleeve as a polite knock sounded on the door. Zuko glanced at it with an annoyed expression.

“That's the food,” Sokka said, setting her on her feet.

“Could you put some damned pants on?” Zuko shot at him, turning away quickly.

“Could you make yourself useful and answer the door?” Azula said, gesturing toward it.

“Yeah, fine, sure, why not?” Zuko snarked, marching over to the door, as Sokka grabbed his clothing from the dresser and shot back toward the bathing room door. He chucked her under the chin as he passed, and the look in his eyes was all fire and mischief, his nose wrinkling in that way she liked so much.

“Your brother is a prude.”

“He's just jealous,” she replied. Sokka chuckled and ducked into the bathroom. He hadn't bothered to cover up though, and she got a fantastic view of his chiseled back and ass. She bit down on her lower lip, feeling warm down to her toes.

Oh no, she was going to be one of _those_ love-struck idiots, the sappy ones that went all gooey whenever their significant other was in the room, and started making moon-eyes at them. Ugh. She hated people like that. She'd always swore she'd never be one of them, and yet here she was.

She decided to be disappointed in herself later. Right now she still trying to make her mind work. His admission had blasted her brain into another dimension and she was having trouble doing anything but reliving that moment when he'd told her that he was in love with her.

Oh yeah. She was a total sap.

Disgusting.

She turned to face Zuko as he opened the door wide to allow the servant inside with a rolling cart filled with covered dishes. The servant met her eyes fleetingly, then glanced at the Fire Lord, then the bed in the corner.

She could almost hear the juices in his mind whirring; the hot gossip that something had happened between her and the Southern Water Tribe Diplomatic Representative and Republic City Councilman Sokka would be all over the palace within the hour. She thought a moment, and the realized she didn't much care if everyone knew.

Her brother and Suki had tried to hide their relationship, and that had been a hilarious disaster. She wasn't going to follow their idiotic example of what not to do. Let them gossip. She was above it all, and if anyone had anything to say about it, she'd light them on fire.

Possibly for real. It depended on her mood.

“Set it down over there,” Azula said, pointing to the table. The servant nodded as Zuko closed the door behind him, tapping the scroll on his thigh. She wondered why he hadn't left yet. Zuko seemed to be avoiding her eyes—and any glimpse of the rumpled up bed—but his eyes were on the scorched carpet, and the golden shield lying on the floor.

“Do I even want to know?” Zuko said, gesturing to the mess.

“Probably not,” Azula said, watching the servant set the table and uncover the dishes. An awkwardness settled on the room as they watched the servant work. She could just hear the lecture going on his head, but he didn't unleash it, and for that she was grateful.

The servant finished, and bowed to them both. “Enjoy.”

A little smile caught hold of her lips. “Could you do me a favor and get my dress over there? Send it to the tailors, and see what they can do. I'm afraid it's completely ruined, but perhaps they can save it.”

“Of course, Princess,” the servant said, glancing at the Fire Lord once before retrieving the red dress from the floor. He bunched it up in his arms and hastened out the door, taking the ripped mess of fabric with him. The moment the door closed, Zuko turned on her.

“It's like you're trying to make me uncomfortable.”

“Why would I do that?” she said brightly, marching over the table and sitting demurely down on one of the chairs. She grabbed a fat sausage and took a juicy bite. Zuko looked up at the ceiling, and banged the scroll against his forehead.

The bathing room door opened and Sokka came out, wearing dark blue pants, fur-trimmed boots of worn brown leather, and a light blue silk shirt that clung to every inch of his broad chest. He was finishing up the knot on his arm wrappings. He'd shaved, and pulled his hair back into its customary wolf's tail.

He looked delicious and she knew she was staring.

She wished, vehemently, that Zuko would leave already. As much as she liked seeing the way that shirt clung to enticingly to him, she wanted nothing more than to rip it off of him again.

She'd show him the meaning of _savage._

“Did I miss anything?” Sokka asked, looking up at her, and glancing at Zuko.

“Zuko won't leave,” she said, waving her sausage at him. “I think he has a message for you.”

“It's why I came. You got a messenger hawk. It's got Aang's seal on it. It came at breakfast, but you weren't there,” Zuko said, thrusting the scroll at Sokka, who frowned and immediately broke the orange seal on it.

“You didn't read it yet?”

“It was addressed to you. I figured you'd want it right away. I decided to bring it myself.”

“Mmm,” Sokka said as he unfurled the scroll, his wing-like brows drawing together in a deep frown as he read the missive. “Shit.”

“That bad?” Azula said, her stomach flip-flopping all of a sudden.

“SHIT!” Sokka growled, tossing the letter at the table. “This is bad. I gotta... Shit, I need to leave! Now.”

“Leave?” Azula said, snatching up the scroll. She glanced at the message. “An explosion in Republic City? What exactly are the Agni Kais?”

“A vicious gang of Firebenders who have been making things...interesting lately. And by interesting I mean they've set fire to three tenements, and we think they're responsible for at least six murders,” Sokka shot over his shoulder, rushing toward the dresser. He grabbed a knapsack and started tossing his clothing into it in crumpled handfuls. “Republic City is kind of a mess right now. We've got a gang problem. Essentially it's Firebenders versus Earthbenders, with a few Water Tribe troublemakers out there mixing it up. We've also got a poverty problem...a housing problem... A food scarcity problem... Well, we've got a lot of problems. The city is growing faster than our ability to make it safe, basically. The gangs are swooping in and preying on people. It's been a messy situation for a while. Toph and I created a task force to fight the gangs before they got out of control, but clearly that hasn't worked.”

“You've mentioned the problem and Aang said something in his last letter, but I didn't realize it was so serious,” Zuko said. “You should have said something. I could have helped.”

“We were handling it. Besides, you've got your own country to run. Between me, Katara, Toph and the Avatar, we thought for sure we'd be able to handle running a small city.”

“I can't even handle running my sister most of the time,” Zuko said sarcastically. Azula rolled her eyes and scanned the message again.

“Two people died in the explosion and the Avatar says that they're afraid riots will break out,” Azula said as Zuko took the scroll from her. He scanned it and frowned.

“This is bad.”

“No shit,” Sokka said and then stopped, whirling on her. His face was anguished. “Azula...”

She licked her lips and looked up, meeting his eyes. “You have to leave. Right now.”

“Yeah,” he said, as the situation finally seemed to sink in to him. “Fuck. I have to leave. I want to stay, and I... I can't. I have to go back. I have to deal with this. This is my responsibility.”

“I understand,” she said, even though her first instinct was to say something entirely jealous and possessive.

The fact that she didn't proved to her once and for all that she had really grown as a person the last few years.

“I don't want to leave you, not after... We haven't even talked about...” Sokka said, putting one hand on his forehead. “This is the most epic bad timing of my life, and that is saying something. SHIT!” He turned on his knapsack and knocked it off of the bed and onto the floor, then he kicked the bed in frustration.

“Sokka...” Azula said, launching to her feet. She crossed the distance between them and he immediately wrapped her up in his arms, burying his face in her damp hair.

“I'm not ready to let you go, troublemaker,” he said into her hair.

She sighed into his chest, smelling his spicy aftershave as it wreathed around her. It made her heart ache. He couldn't leave, not right now. Not after all that. She might kill him if he did.

“Then don't,” she said, pulling back and meeting his gaze. “Take me with you.”

Sokka blinked and then slowly smiled. “You'd come with me? I didn't want to ask...”

“Of course, I'd come. Besides, it sounds like you need another Firebender on your side. And you're a wimpy little non-Bender. If some gang member set you on fire because you decided to throw a stupid boomerang at them, I'd have to level Republic City from the ground up in revenge. And no one wants that.”

Sokka laughed. “Yes, let's avoid that, shall we? Are you sure?”

“You said you loved me. You think I'm going to let you go after that?” she said, eyes narrowing. She poked him in the stomach and he twitched away from her, still grinning. “Try it and I'll make you regret it.”

“When it comes to you, I'm not looking to have regrets,” Sokka said and cupped her face. He kissed her forehead then her eyelids, and then slid a slow, soft kiss against her lips. When he pulled back, that smile was back on his face, shining in his fire-bright eyes. “If you come with me, I may never let you go.”

The weight of those words acted on her like lightning, shooting through her, smashing through any hesitation she had—not that she had much to begin with.

“Promise?” she said as he bit his lip.

“Promise.”

“Now _this_ is happening. Amazing,” Zuko said by the table. They glanced at him and saw him rubbing his forehead. “Fine, you know what? That's fine. I was already thinking of sending a Fire Nation representative with Sokka to help with the situation, so congratulations, Azula. You're my new Ambassador to the Republic City. Spirits help the place. I'll get the paperwork written up and sent to your rooms. You may want to go pack.”

Pack. Right. She needed to go pack. Because she was going to Republic City with Sokka. Who was in love with her. And she was in love with him. And they were walking into a gang war.

Was it strange that she was excited by the idea of throwing fire at a gang of criminals? Yeah. Sokka had definitely been right; she had been bored shitless playing the good girl in her big brother's snooze-inducing court. She needed some excitement. She needed a fight.

Sokka had always given her the best fights. Why was this any different?

“You can take the Royal Airship, it'll get you there faster. I'll have it ready within the hour. I'll see you in the courtyard?”

“Yeah,” Sokka said, putting one hand on her upper back. Zuko turned toward the door, but Sokka stopped him. “Hey, Zuko? Thanks. I know this is a weird situation.”

“It is. Extremely. Just do me a favor and don't get killed. And if you break my sister's heart I'll hunt you down and burn your dick off. I have diplomatic immunity in every country on the planet. I could get away with it. So watch yourself.”

And with that, Zuko swept out of the room, closing the door behind him. Azula made a face and Sokka blinked.

“You think he'd kill me if he knew I choked you into an orgasm?”

“Definitely,” she said, turning back around to face him. “But wouldn't it be funny to see the vein in his forehead explode if you did?”

“Suki might take it out on both of us.”

“We wouldn't want that,” she said as she looked up at him, chewing on her lip. “Are you sure about this?”

“Definitely. I meant what I said. We haven't had a chance to talk about...all this...but...it's a long way to Republic City. And it'll be just the two of us up there... No interruptions...”

“You're already mentally fucking me, aren't you?”

“So hard,” he shot at her, grinning. Then he bent down and kissed her forehead again. “Look, I know this isn't ideal, but...”

She stopped him with a kiss, standing on tiptoe and crushing her mouth to his. His arms encircled her, holding her to him. There was heat and promise—so many promises—in that kiss, and it filled her up, sparking want and need and deep, growling passion in her. Her head spun with the force of it.

Oh, she was definitely one of those gooey idiots in love. How embarrassing.

Sokka breathed out against her aching lips and stroked her drying hair with gentle fingers. “Come home with me, troublemaker. We'll figure out the rest of it eventually. Just come home with me.”

“Yes,” she whispered against his lips, and it was a promise and a prayer.

She didn't know what was awaiting them in Republic City. Everything was happening too fast—much too fast—but she had never been afraid of change. So long as she had Sokka, that was all mattered.

So there was a gang war waiting on them in Republic City? So what? She'd handled worse. How bad could it be? She could take them all on. No big deal.

No big deal at all.

_(end)_

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be a sequel! Keep an eye out! It'll be just as smutty and full of feels as this one! :)


End file.
